Glasgow is home to hundreds of pubs - but did you ever wonder how they got their names?
Many pubs in Glasgow are pretty old, some dating back centuries - back to when most of their customers would have been illiterate, but could still recognise pub signs.
Pub landlords of the time would opt for simple everyday concepts, like agricultural objects, to recognisable figures, events, trades, sports, and trade guilds.
Irish pubs tend to be named after the current or former owner, and this came over to Glasgow alongside the mass emigration of Ireland which brought many Irish people to Glasgow.
Nowadays (just about) everyone in Glasgow is literate, but pubs retain their classical naming conventions - with some keeping their names that date back centuries.
A lot of Glasgow pub names can be explained away easily when we know this, although some pub names in the city are a bit more involved, esoteric, and complicated than that.
Wondering how the many weird Glasgow schemes and districts got their names? Check our list of the most commonly mispronounced place names around Glasgow!
Here’s how 15 of Glasgow’s most famous and recognisable pubs got their names!
1. Station Bar
Looking around the Station Bar in Cowcaddens nowadays you’d be confused to what station they were talking about. Buchanan Bus Station? Queen Street? It’s a bit too out the way for that. In fact the Station Bar got its name from the nearby Buchanan Railway Station - one of Scotland’s busiest railway hubs at its peak, which was demolished in 1966.
2. Bon Accord
Bon Accord comes from the French for ‘Good Agreement’ and is the motto for the city of Aberdeen. It’s speculated by publicans that the name came from the original owners of the bar which opened in 1971 - who had some links to the north-east coast city.
3. The Snaffle Bit
‘The Snaffle Bit’ can be attributed to the famous Glasgow pub landlord John Scouller, who owned a few public houses across the city, including the Horse Shoe Bar. All bars under Scouller were horse-themed, as horses were the landlords special interest. A Snaffle Bit is the mouth-piece that a horse bites down on while being ridden, and is used by almost every horse-rider.
4. Steps Bar
This one’s pretty simple, the pub on Glassford Street gets it name from the two steps leading into the front entrance.