History

In 1899 Phillip MacSorley opened the doors of his ornate glass-fronted public house on the corner of Glasgow’s Midland and Jamaica Streets for the first time. With his name proudly on display, he set out to make his establishment one of the most luxurious in the city. Two years ago, almost 110 years on, I found myself doing likewise, the MacSorley’s name still above the door but much having changed.

While a period of restoration work was underway, I had time on my hands to do some digging on the bar’s past as a parallel project to the physical restoration. I was keen to know more about the history and what might be revealed. Hearteningly, both efforts produced a surprising revelation or two as the Hebridean connections of nearly half the pub’s history were revealed.

My curiosity was first piqued when details of Phillip MacSorley’s successor came to light. Records stated that a Malcolm MacIntyre from Stornoway, my own hometown, had taken over the bar in 1920. A few phone calls to The Stornoway Historical Society revealed that, although originally from Glasgow, Malcolm had lived and worked in the thriving harbour town and island capital and had been the proprietor of the Imperial Hotel on South Beach Street where An Lanntair gallery now stands. It was with Malcolm that the pub’s long association with the western Highlands and Islands began, an association that was seen to last for the next fifty years

Council records showed that MacIntyre’s successor in 1920 was a Mr Neil Gillies who hailed from Kensaleyre in Skye but here the trail went cold. So after contacting the West Highland Free Press, and with the help of their letters page, we reached out to a wider audience for answers. We did not have to wait long for results. After a series of missed phonecalls and messages, a handwritten letter from one of the Glasgow Skye, Morag Nall arrived and with it details on almost twenty years of MacSorley’s history. Mrs Nall, now in her eighties, informed me that her father had been manager of the bar just prior to the Second World War until the late 1950s and that MacSorley’s had been one of Glasgow’s original island watering holes rivalling even stalwarts like The Park Bar in the city’s west end.

Whether feeling the effects of a global recession or for other reasons, the bar was apparently faring markedly worse by the mid 1930s and owner Neil Gillies decided to headhunt one of the city’s best bar managers to help stem the problem’s tide. He found his man in the shape of Morag’s father, a fellow Sgitheanach by the name of Angus Campbell Young from Treaslane near Edinbane. Angus ran a bar on nearby High Street and agreed to undertake took a new role as the MacSorley’s manager around 1937. A team of islanders quickly formed around the new manager including Neil Ronaldson from Waternish as head barkeeper, cook Rachel McDonald from South Uist and behind the bar, on Fridays and Saturdays, John Ferguson from Skeabost and Ewen Ferguson from North Uist.

The outbreak of war in 1939 drew Highland and Islanders in droves to the city, pouring from the trains and onto Navy and Merchant ships on the nearby River Clyde. MacSorley’s Bar was just a stone’s throw away from the river, as well as the legendary Heilanman’s Umbrella or “The Bridge” as it was known, underneath Central Station. As is the way, the Gàidhealtachd soon found their own kith and kin and a home away from home at the island-owned and run hostelry. For better or worse the bar was a very busy place during the war years and gaelic resounded from the four walls as Glaswegian voices took a back seat.

Morag says “When the war came in 1939, of course, all the Highland boys came down and landed in MacSorley’s because of the gaelic, my father spoke gaelic, Neil Ronaldson too, and that was a big attraction. The bar was going like a fair.”

Behind the heavy swing doors on Jamaica Street, the men who would come to give so much during the conflict sought solace in each other’s company far from home and in the house whisky plied across the large mahogany bar.

Stories too emerged about staff squeezing in a game of shinty at Shieldhall during afternoon closing times. Or the office worker related to one of the senior MacSorley’s staff who, in a time of rationing, when a sign on the bar door declared Whisky On / Whisky Off depending on supply, managed to earn a five shilling pay rise by procuring a rare bottle of uisge beatha for her dram-thirsty boss when he requested.

There must have been a thousand stories like this during that period but in the passing of time, whether due to the passing of men and women or the passing of memory from one too many drams we will perhaps never know. But the island connection appears to have continued throughout the 1940s and 1950s. I spoke by phone to John MacKenzie a customer in those days from Glendale who recalled:

“ Even after the war there was more Gaelic spoken in MacSorley’s than English, everyone there was from the islands, packed in shoulder to shoulder. There was even herring and potatoes served by the kitchen every Saturday.”

But by the sixties times were a-changing and small independent pubs began to be taken over by large breweries. MacSorley’s went the way of Scottish brewery giant Tennents by 1958 before present day English firm Punch Taverns undertook ownership. Although some island staff remained latterly, eventually connections were lost and MacSorley’s became just another Glasgow boozer, a faded copy of its original, former glories.

So today, to reconnect with this new found heritage, decades on, the MacSorley’s team has set out to bring back a flavour of the islands both figuratively and literally. A fortuitous meeting brought about a collaboration with Harris Tweed Hebrides to work on new tweed interiors, the cloth being employed on bespoke seating, handrails and even menus. Connections were established with the Abhainn Dearg Distillery in Carnish who agreed to sell MacSorley’s a cask of the first legal spirit from the Isle of Lewis in 170 years and name it the Peacemaker batch in honour of Philip MacSorley’s own dram from a century before.

With a strong music and event policy already in place, the bar has begun to put on gigs with young upcoming artists and musicians from the Highlands. The food operation has also taken its lead from its Hebridean heritage calling itself Biadh and establishing an award winning menu of traditional Scottish dishes with a contemporary twist under expereinced chef Sam Carswell. Here the island influence again comes to the fore with crofting produce, Stornoway marag, Uist shellfish and the traditional herring and potatoes making a welcome return to the menu. Even the acquired taste of Ness delicacy Guga made an appearance recently under the guidance of expert and author Donald S. Murray.

MacSorley’s is now quickly reestablishing its lost identity and the team behind it truly believes in the wealth of talent, creativity and product coming from the western Highlands and Islands today. All these decades on our aim remains to be what MacSorley always intended his bar to be, a warm and welcoming hostelry, a place to enjoy good drink, good food and good music and bring people from near and far to join us for a whisky and the craic.

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