Glasgow Chambers

Just a 30 minute flight from Dublin or a ferry/train ride from Belfast, Glasgow is the perfect place to spend a weekend out on the town.  Besides it being filled with cute, eligible Scottish men, the city also has great shopping, culture and nightlife.  In addition, Glasgow is just a quick hours bus ride to Edinburgh, one of the most beautiful cities in the UK.

 If you shop around, getting a cheap airfare to the city can be quite reasonable.  I’ve paid anywhere from IR£90-IR£65 for a quick city break with Ryanair.com.  Prestwick airport is 50mins from the city centre via train and will set you back a measly £2.65 on production of valid ticket or boarding pass.  B&B's are relatively reasonable as well – going from £25 on up.   

 Before flying out of Dublin I checked out gay-glasgow.co.uk and gayscotland.com to find out what was going on.  Gay-Glasgow was quite thorough in their listings but the author of the site was quite opinionated as far as which venues he liked and which he thought were crap.  My recommendation would be to try out all the bars and clubs to see which one suits you best.  Gayscotland.com was just as good and had listings for the rest of Scotland as well.

Polo Lounge

 The first stop on my Friday night was Delmonica’s (68 Virginia Street) located in Glasgow’s gay quarter.  The pub is quite spacious with booths and tables for the busy crowd to occupy.  Del’s is usually a warm-up for The Polo Lounge (84 Wilson Street) located right around the corner.  But, tonight it was off to Glasgow’s biggest gay club – Bennets (90 Glassford Street) again, within close proximity to the other two venues.  The entry fee was a reasonable £5 for the large club which offered a dance floor for a more camp crowd + a more house music driven space downstairs.

Bennets is open from Wednesday to Sunday and was busy up until closing time at 3.

 After a good nights sleep and a full days shopping, I was off to crack open some of Glasgow’s 10 gay pubs.  Highly recommended by the gay-Glasgow site was the Waterloo Pub (306 Argyle Street).  It was described on the site as “Best gay pub in Glasgow” and “Best Service”.  Well, the service was good – but the crowd wasn’t my cup of tea.  I walked in for a quiet pint and ended up being almost harassed by the punters there.  Mind you, it was “harassed” in a friendly way.  Basically, the crowd was a little bit older than I’m used to and the blokes there were almost drooling over anything young and new that came in.  It came to a point in the night where one of the regulars of the bar was standing across the room staring and literally pointing his finger at me.  Time to go.  

 In contrast, the site lists Delmonica’s as “Biggest Dump” and “Worst Service”.  Turns out that I preferred this pub to most of the places that he recommended.  I found it to be a nice space, the service to be just fine and the crowd to be friendly.

I met a group of Scottish lads who were kind enough to give me a discount pass to the Polo Lounge after Del’s closed.  More than a few pints later, I was inside the Polo Lounge – which was excellent.  This gay space used to a members only gentlemen’s club back in the day and it shows.  Upstairs is a lounge area that is great for relaxing and having a conversation with the locals.  The bottom floor is spacious and well decorated with chaise lounges and chandeliers.  Downstairs houses the main dance floor playing anything from Eminem to Madonna.  Winding down the halls leads you to another dance area playing more tunes with more people dancing and chatting away.  Some locals that I talk to don’t think too much of the Polo Lounge but, to this visitor it’s a first class gay club.

 For some though, a gay bar or club may not be the best way to meet the locals.  Enter “Easy Everything” (57/61 St. Vincent Street, Glasgow) home of the world’s largest Internet cafes.  With 375 terminals and £1 for Internet access, this is a great place to email, meet friends or cruise for whatever.  I went into the men’s chat room on Gay-Ireland.com and clicked on Glasgow 1.  There were 40 people in the room and 9 of them were actually in Easy Everything.  Although, one of the biggest appeals of meeting Scottish guys is actually hearing that accent (!) …..this is a different and fun approach of exploring gay life in Glasgow.  I was lucky enough to meet this lovely lad sitting about 50 metres away from me in the shop.  And well…it was a great night.  

 Just opened in Glasgow is a new pub called Revolver.bar which claims to be a break from the typical gay venue.  I wasn’t able to check the place out myself, but I look forward to visiting there the next time I’m in Glasgow.  In the meantime, their cool website is at www.revolverdotbar.com

 For a quick weekend break or an extended holiday through Scotland, Glasgow is a must for travellers looking for a bit of craic.     

By PJ - March 2001

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