Design Focus: Tennent’s Bar

HS T 020

By Jason Caddy

Tennent’s Bar on Byres Road might not be at the Crossroads of the World but it proudly stands at a meeting point of two major roads in Glasgow’s west end and gets as respectably rammed as any good boozer in NYC’s Times Square.

That’s why, when the scaffolding went up, it sent chills of nervous anticipation down Glaswegians’ spines – the first refurbishment for this Glasgow institution in a quarter of a century. Would owner Mitchells and Butler’s refurbishment treat it with the reverence it deserved?

There was even a Facebook campaign ten years ago called ‘Save Tennent’s Bar from change’ for goodness sake – so any tinkering was always going to require a delicate touch to preserve the integrity of this Glasgow institution and keep at least some of the people happy some of the time.

Cue main contractor Hugh Stirling – the company responsible for all trades on the site during what was just over a three-week project. There was no better company for the job, given that company director Angus Allston was involved in the last major refurbishment of Tennent’s Bar 25 years ago.

He told DRAM, “The project was extremely challenging in terms of time, as the main works involved a structural opening through the tenement wall to link the main bar into the adjacent snug bar and most importantly opening up use of the basement bar -which could only be accessed previously by the street.

“The works also involved alterations to the frontage, new signboards and complete redecoration. This proved extremely hard to progress as it rained, snowed and hailed every day, all day, for three-and-a-half weeks on site, with the only dry day being on the day of the handover.”

He continued, “Other challenges were linked to the age of the building with not a straight wall nor level floor in the place, so to carry out a fit-out with new tiles, flooring and wall panelling all to the standard achieved is something we are very proud of.”

Now for our design verdict. On my visit, the new windows are what first hit me. Gone is all the opaque glass and in its place, clear sparkling stuff that you can now see right through into the bar. The heavy black paintwork has likewise been dispensed with and in its place, exterior paintwork of a greyish green colour that sets off the new gold lettering sweetly.

Once inside from the Byres Road entrance, the layout is the same as it was pre-refurbishment (bar in front of you, toilets off to the far right etc.) with those structural changes that Angus mentioned being the only disorienting thing – that and the amount of daylight pouring in through all those frost-free panes of glass.

This is also better ergonomically given that this area used to awkwardly accessed by doing a dog’s leg via the toilets. As well as seating, this newly-opened former snug houses the stairs down to the basement, which is both open to the public in the evenings as well as available for private hire, plus this area has a new longer window with seating parked in front of it affording customers a view of passing crowds.

I really like the dark stain on the woodwork that remains from its previous incarnation, like the panelling on the walls and the new pictures and paintings – the largest of all hanging in the far right-hand corner where that big old painting used to hang at a 30-degree angle high on the wall. Its replacement has been properly affixed to the wall, rather a shame I thought because I liked the old one.

The dark stain makes the wooden back bar even more handsome, likewise the bar itself. What draws your eye to the back bar is the Tennent’s inscribed mirror, topped off with lovely green tiles.

On the walls is a neutral cream colour and on the floor black and white tiles. Some of the walls have been clad in patterned wallpaper too. Hanging from the ceiling are big copper pendant lights with bulbous bulbs and elsewhere there are little spotlights dotted about. Near the windows hang big spherical pendant lights.

This refurbishment isn’t any kind of drastic departure and remains faithful to the former layout of this historic pub that dates back to 1884 and hopefully this refurbishment should stand the test of time by holding up for the next 25 years and who knows, perhaps Angus will make it a hat-trick by being involved in its next refurbishment.

Category: Editors' Picks, News
Tags: Tennent's Bar