Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Pub that came back
The Globe Bar was saved 40 years ago
THE Globe Bar in Dundee reopened its doors 40 years ago after being saved from the bulldozers.
Pints were pulled for the first time in a decade at “Dundee’s oldest city pub”.
The West Port building was transformed from a derelict shell and restored to its former glory by a consortium of businessmen with “no expense spared”.
The “new look Globe” featured a public bar, lounge and winery.
It was completely refurbished in period style, “mindful of its Victorian origins”.
It also meant the restoration of one of Dundee’s famous Iandmarks: the West Port clock.
Brian King’s book, titled Dundee Pubs, gives the Big Red Book treatment to the city’s most famous watering holes.
Brian said the building that contains the pub dates from 1823, while the clock was added in 1864.
He said: “For most of its existence, the Globe Bar only occupied the left-hand side of the ground floor, the other parts of the ground floor had various occupants including a grocer, an ironmonger and latterly a drycleaning firm.
“By the late 1970s, the building had fallen into disrepair.
“It was perhaps fortunate not to have been demolished along with the Overgate and other parts of the West Port or much of the nearby Hawkhill in this period.
“In 1969, it came into the ownership of Dundee University, and so, if not demolished, it could conceivably have been turned over to university use. “But it was instead sold on.
“It was refurbished in the 1980s and the pub extended to cover the entire ground floor.”
The new version of the Globe was very different from the old but “completely in keeping with the spirit of the age in which the building was erected”.
General manager Colin MacKenzie said careful attention to detail was taken throughout.
He said: “We are proud of the fact that this listed building, which was derelict, has been saved from demolition.”
The Globe in 1984 was in three distinct sections “to cater for everybody’s taste”.
The public bar was done in the style of a “hostelry of yesteryear”.
The lounge was “sumptuously appointed with mahogany panelling”.
The “final ingredient in the premises” was a winery open from 9am.
Food was available in all three departments.
There was deep wine carpeting and detail from the clock tower was incorporated in the ornate, solid mahogany bar. There was exposed hardwood flooring and old church pews covered in leather as seating, to give the public bar a Victorian atmosphere.
A pint of lager was 73p in 1984 and The Globe became a firm favourite among students, visitors and regulars.
The weekends were incredibly busy and the food was hugely popular.
Remember the Globe Burger? It was incredibly tasty and you needed a pile of napkins to eat it.
In 1988 a three-course Christmas lunch cost £5.95. Coffee and After Eight mints were included.
Homes Under The Hammer presenter and Evening Telegraph columnist Martel Maxwell has never forgotten pulling pints in
The Globe. She was 18 and loved the banter behind the bar.
Martel was a barmaid from March to September 1995 and particular highlights included an unexpected visit from some Perth prisoners.
They had a beef with a doorman and used a day release to start a riot – wooden tables and chairs were flung everywhere, glass broken and mirrors shattered.
She took cover behind the bar and emerged unscathed.
The Globe always had a great atmosphere and regulars with bags of charm so these incidents were few and far between.
It also became a popular venue on the Dundee Blues Bonanza circuit. And the boozer has always been a great place to watch the football and rugby.
In 2019 there was plenty of gnashing of teeth when it was
announced the venue was to become an Irish theme bar and change its name. The aim was to reinvigorate the pub following a decrease in custom.
Regulars and former staff were quick to criticise the plans.
More than 90% of Evening Telegraph readers who took part in an online poll called for the name to be retained by owners Belhaven. It wasn’t.
The traditional name was abandoned in favour of the fictional Dublin fishmonger from the ballad of the same name.
Then Covid hit in March 2020 but the pub emerged and still excels in sport, entertainment and food.
The building housing Molly Malone’s has survived enormous change in two centuries but has stood the test of time in Dundee’s fair city.