Historic city pub still loved and lauded after weathering winds of change

There’s an incredible photograph of a procession of soldiers marching down Sauchiehall Street on their way to fight in World War I.

By itself, it’s an affecting snap, capturing the final steps of so many who would never see the streets of their home again as they stride down Renfield Street, past one of the city’s most historic pubs.

Ever since first seeing the photo published a few years ago, Pub Spy hasn’t been able to look at Lauder’s, in Glasgow’s city centre, the same way. It’s a touchstone to a different time, a reminder of a sad past, yet somehow warming to know it has weathered the winds of change.

One wind, the one that carried the embers and soot from the fire that devastated nearby club Victoria’s and gouged

a hole in Sauchiehall Street, came close to ending its story. It was shut for months after, opening in September last year with a smart new look.

With muted neon signs, tungsten lights and subway tiling, it’s taken on what has fast become the standard decor for new bars.

But Lauder’s was never trying to be cool. It’s an everyday bar for folk with no pretensions, as Pub Spy discovered. “There’severy kindabeer in Glasgow inatfridge,” slurred a regular bar fly as I surveyed the offerings on a lunch-time pint break with a pal. “Whitisit yerlookingfur?”

Perhaps a little worse for wear, the guy was clearly a regular, because one scolding snap of the fingers from the woman behind the bar and he stood to attention, offering up an: “Aye, yerawritepal.” Some tourists would pay for this, you know. They call it “authentic”…

Pre-fire, which shut the place for 18 months, Lauder’s walls included a haul of old photos depicting its associations with the area’s old theatre heyday.

These days, a programme for Harry Lauder (no relation) and an old painting of the long-gone Alhambra were among the few echoes of its past.

On a Friday afternoon, Lauder’s was heaving, with office workers and shoppers having an afternoon pint or lunch from the on-the-money bar menu. So busy, in fact, Pub Spy had to sit on a bench and rest a drink on the window shelf.

There are few pubs in this city with the place in the affections Lauder’s has. And even if one staff member suggested it didn’t feel like the same place after the fire while pouring a pint, it clearly does for the hundreds who cross its doors every week. Some things even fire can’t destroy.