Five of the ‘roughest’ looking pubs in and around Glasgow

Living around modern Glasgow now, it can be hard to remember how rough pubs could be - with new chic, spotless, and trendy bars opening across the city weekly. Because of this, we looked at pubs past and present across town to catalogue our favourite ‘rough’ pubs.

It’s hard to say what the ‘roughest pub’ in Glasgow is - and it falls entirely down to who you ask. One person might tell you that The Saracen Head is the biggest dive in town, while another would insist that The Louden Tavern is Glasgow’s equivalent to Mos Eisley - like many things in the city, the viewpoint is heavily influenced by sectarianism.

So we took an objective look at pubs across the city, to see who boasts the ‘roughest’ exterior.

The Brass Button

The Brass Button in North Motherwell is well-known for it’s cheap drink and friendly punters, despite its barbed wire crown and dodgy square brick structure. Located down a lane behind a bookies and in the heart of the North Motherwell scheme, the Brass Button enjoys a lot of traffic, and is well-loved within the community.

There is a pool table, reasonably clean toilets and Tennent’s Lager on tap. What more could you ask from your local?

One reviewer wrote of the pub on RestaurantGurus.com, saying: “Ideal wee pub for a few drinks without the hustle of the ones up the street. Definitely the best pub in Motherwell”

It also received some pelters on Twitter after reopening their beer garden when covid restrictions first allowed outdoor spaces to reopen. The extent of the beer garden was a couple of pub chairs and tables chucked down on the wasteland round the back of the pub.

The Brazen Head

The Brazen Head is the first result to come up when you google ‘roughest pub in Glasgow’. It’s quite clearly a Celtic pub due to it’s green and white frontage and gaelic font.

Its reputation certainly doesn’t benefit from being neighboured by two underpasses. Something about the dark bit under a bridge really ramps up the risk of violent crime.

The Times calls it the ‘Hardest pub in Glasgow’, with many pointing to it as the epicentre of violence in the Gorbals. During the height of knife-crime in the city, stabbings were frequent around the pub - with a serious assault being reported at the start of this year

Brechin’s

A classic Govan pub, Brechin’s has been open for decades in the South Side of the city. Despite its rough facade, the present building was erected in 1894 and boasts a tower in Scots Baronial style.

Brechin’s is a beloved Govan pub, and is defended vehemently by the community. Noam Chomsky attended the pub in 1990 after a talk on radical politics in Glasgow in 1990. The American political-theorist was only pictured drinking orange juice in the pub.

At one point the pub was the ninth stop on the Govan Heritage trail, and has been used as a filming location for drama series such as Rebus, Taggart, and Fields of Blood. One reviewer wrote on Google:”Great pub spit and sawdust proper place”

Casbah

The Casbah was often referred to as ‘the pub with nae windaes’. But who needs windows when you’ve got freshly poured lager and a pool table?

Casbah was known for it’s colourful local characters - despite the often occurence of stabbings, fights, and at least one murder in the late 90’s and early 00’s.

The Caravel

Ran by Tam and Mags McGraw - one of Glasgow's most renowned crime couples - the pub was host to apparent drug trafficking, bomb squares, and even underworld murders.

A 1,700 ball-bearing fragmentation grenade was thrown into the pub to send a message after a failed takeover of the pub from other criminals.

Everyone hit the floor when the grenade bounced loudly off a door frame and under a table. The barman Joe 'bananas' Hanlon (who was later murdered) picked it up and ran across the road where he threw it into a school playground. It was then moved to a nearby cemetery next to the pub. It was detonated by a specialist team from Faslane the next day.

Following a string of criminal controversies - the pub was demolished in 1996 - rumours say that The Caravel was demolished to hide any evidence of criminal activity. The McGraws mantained it was nothing more than a business decision up until Tam’s death in his home in Mount Vernon in 2007.