The Laurieston bar is a fixed point in Glasgow, a time capsule of local hospitality. Embraced by music fans and hipster blow-ins, at its heart this is a family-run neighbourhood place, with interiors that haven’t changed since the 1960s. Like many traditional Scottish pubs, The Laurieston finds itself an awkward fit for the realities of social distancing. It was built for parties, not pandemics.
Closing the place was hard for Joseph Clancy and he knows this was felt in the community. “I went out a walk today and bumped into seven different customers who would pop into the pub most days and have been doing that for years. To some of them, particularly the older guys, the only place they meet people is in the pub” he says.
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He sees other bars serving from their doorway but they’ve decided against this temporary. “We could do takeaway, but it’s not viable. We don’t have a license for an outdoor space. We have an off sales license, but for me, selling a beer in a plastic tumbler and taking it up the road is not the same as going to the pub.
The bylaws on drinking in public don't help. “People might be drinking it on the way home and then you get into trouble for selling the drink to them although that’s not our fault. I know a few of the pubs that have reopened, they’ve stopped giving out the big straws with their cocktails. As soon as they put the straw in, that’s an open container and people are off to the park”.
The Laurieston’s enduring charm comes from its distinctive look, a warm welcome and the sense of camaraderie that comes from drinking at close quarters. Removing that last element is the issue they now face. Joseph says: “If we put screens round the bar, that’s the bar spoilt in my view. Our tables are bolted to the floor and haven’t moved in thirty years. We want to do what we can to keep people safe so we will try to move things around. When we are allowed to open, we want to open. Then we have to think about what happens if people start to sit beside folk, what’s our capacity, what do we do with the toilets, how do we pay for the changes, what are the legal implications. It’s a lot to take in”.
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