One of Glasgow’s busiest pubs once housed the riches of the city’s wealthiest merchants and businessmen.

The Counting House on George Square is known as a Wetherspoons pub – but before then, the building was used as a Bank of Scotland, which has operated for 300 years, and its vaults are bursting with history.

While it has been adapted to serve the people of Glasgow with cheap pints and gammon and chips, it has retained most of its original features including safes, statues, bank vaults and its beautiful glass dome.

Glasgow Times:

It was designed in Italian Renaissance style by JT Ruchhead between 1867 and 1870 and was the only bank ever to have been established by an Act of Parliament of Scotland.

Punters can explore the long corridors and multiple floors and learn more about the history of the country’s money signposted throughout the building, from the first silver penny ‘sterlings’ introduced by David I in the 12th century to the first printed bank notes.

Enjoy a visual tour of historic Glasgow through the many framed photos depicting the city in the early 20th century, such as the Trongate, Renfield Street and George Square.

Glasgow Times: Thomas LiptonThomas Lipton (Image: Newsquest)

You’ll recognise some of the most notable public figures associated with Glasgow like Adam Smith, Lord Kelvin and tea merchant Thomas Lipton, as their portraits also don the pub’s walls.

Among the many photographs on the wall are sketches, drawings, and poems. Learn the theories about the real meaning behind the famous Tudor rhyme, Sing a Song of Sixpence, which contains the line "the king was in his counting house; counting out his money."

Some believe the ‘maid’ who had her nose picked off by a blackbird was a cruel reference to Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII’s second wife.

Glasgow Times: Robert BurnsRobert Burns (Image: Newsquest)

A poem by Sir Robert Burns, written on the back of a Scottish guinea note, tells of his financial woes and how he considered emigrating to Jamaica before he achieved success with the publication of Poems Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect in 1786.

Even if you’re just popping in for a drink or a bite to eat, you’ll be literally sitting in history as some of the bank’s former vaults have been transformed to accommodate pub-goers.