r/Glasgow Tools

Title
Author	GandyOram
Comment	> there couldn’t have been this many pubs because there probably wasn’t as much variety then I'm pretty sure there were more pubs back then. [This](https://boakandbailey.com/2021/04/the-joy-of-glasgow-pubs-in-1901/) covers a description of Glaswegian drinking habits in 1901. When it is said that even in 1901 people had "done away with the daylight drinking which used to be common among Glasgow clerks a decade or two ago". A description of a typical evening is given as > "Thereby they encourage drinking, if not in one particular public-house, at least in several... the barmen at your elbow makes you unwelcome if you do not drink up and have another, and so your idle person goes out in the wet street, and once more, when the desolation of the rainy night has seized upon him, enters another public-house, to find as before that the relief is short. Then out again, and in once more, and so on till the clock strikes eleven, and the devious direction is home. A natural instinct for comradeship and brightness has driven him from a squalid home into illuminated streets, and from these the weather drives him for shelter to the public-house." So there was indeed less variety, less variety in forms of entertainment, and less variety in ways you could heat and comfort your house, or meet friends, etc. so the variety of pub was really the only option for many men back in the day. Further on > "At a bar he might fall in with men he was ‘weel acquent wi,’ and might share in the round that was going; to withdraw then without returning the favour were the part of a sponge." So drinking in rounds is a remnant from back then (upon arrival you will be bought a drink by someone at the table, but you are expected to stay and drink until its your turn to buy everyone at the table a drink, and that is the only time it is acceptable for you to go home) demonstrating just how much they liked a pint back then too. I can't find any sources so this is potentially nonsense, but I'm sure I've heard/read something along the lines of Glasgow having like 1 pub to every 12 people (I've definitely got the figures wrong but you get the idea) back in the early 1800s. Pre-tenement times, and I don't think they were quite the pubs you think of today, but I wouldn't be surprised if there were a lot more back then; we've been at it for a while. Tennents have been brewing beer at that same site since 1556, for an example of that. They [found an old bar tab attributed to Rabbie Burns](https://www.glasgowlive.co.uk/news/history/robert-burns-pub-saracen-history-17626889) owing money for presumably some 1800s Tennents Ale, and he was known to drink at various (many) other bars (taverns, inns, public houses) in the area and all over Scotland, so there must have been a right good few.
Reddit Link	https://www.reddit.com/r/glasgow/comments/oy2y7p/historians_of_glasgow/h7r5760/
Created	Thu 5th Aug 2021 2:49am
Status	normal ()

> there couldn’t have been this many pubs because there probably wasn’t as much variety then

I'm pretty sure there were more pubs back then.

[This](https://boakandbailey.com/2021/04/the-joy-of-glasgow-pubs-in-1901/) covers a description of Glaswegian drinking habits in 1901. When it is said that even in 1901 people had "done away with the daylight drinking which used to be common among Glasgow clerks a decade or two ago".

A description of a typical evening is given as

> "Thereby they encourage drinking, if not in one particular public-house, at least in several... the barmen at your elbow makes you unwelcome if you do not drink up and have another, and so your idle person goes out in the wet street, and once more, when the desolation of the rainy night has seized upon him, enters another public-house, to find as before that the relief is short. Then out again, and in once more, and so on till the clock strikes eleven, and the devious direction is home. A natural instinct for comradeship and brightness has driven him from a squalid home into illuminated streets, and from these the weather drives him for shelter to the public-house."

So there was indeed less variety, less variety in forms of entertainment, and less variety in ways you could heat and comfort your house, or meet friends, etc. so the variety of pub was really the only option for many men back in the day.

Further on

> "At a bar he might fall in with men he was ‘weel acquent wi,’ and might share in the round that was going; to withdraw then without returning the favour were the part of a sponge."

So drinking in rounds is a remnant from back then (upon arrival you will be bought a drink by someone at the table, but you are expected to stay and drink until its your turn to buy everyone at the table a drink, and that is the only time it is acceptable for you to go home) demonstrating just how much they liked a pint back then too.

I can't find any sources so this is potentially nonsense, but I'm sure I've heard/read something along the lines of Glasgow having like 1 pub to every 12 people (I've definitely got the figures wrong but you get the idea) back in the early 1800s. Pre-tenement times, and I don't think they were quite the pubs you think of today, but I wouldn't be surprised if there were a lot more back then; we've been at it for a while. Tennents have been brewing beer at that same site since 1556, for an example of that. They [found an old bar tab attributed to Rabbie Burns](https://www.glasgowlive.co.uk/news/history/robert-burns-pub-saracen-history-17626889) owing money for presumably some 1800s Tennents Ale, and he was known to drink at various (many) other bars (taverns, inns, public houses) in the area and all over Scotland, so there must have been a right good few.