This website is currently in beta. If you wish to go back to the current site please click here. To provide feedback or find out more about this site, please click here.

Pubs & Clubs
Events
Beers & Breweries
Pubs & Clubs
Events
Beers & Breweries
Join Us
Heritage Pub

Steps Bar, Glasgow

Let us know your thoughts by leaving a score

REAL ALE not available
62 Glassford Street, Merchant City, Glasgow, G1 1UP (View on Google Map)
No website available
Improve This Listing

This city centre bar is an amazing survivor; refitted in 1938, it has barely altered since. It is one of three impressive 1930s Art Deco survivors in Glasgow. Situated in the ground floor of a late 18th-century four-storey building, the bar has been owned by the same family for 40 years; its name comes from the two steps into the pub.

Information for this venue is provided by the Glasgow & West of Scotland Branch of CAMRA
Previous Names
Local Authority
Glasgow City
Last updated
17/06/2024
Last surveyed
Pub ID
GLA/968
Asset of Community Value

Three star - A pub interior of outstanding national historic importance

Listed status: B

This, with the Portland Arms, is one of Glasgow’s two well-preserved Art Deco pubs, refitted by new owners, the Taylor family, in 1949. The frontage is clad in Vitrolite panelling and has frosted glass windows (one replaced in 2006). The interior is gloriously complete with veneer-panelled walls, and original gantry and counter. There is a small sitting room on the left with more panelling, fixed seating and bell-pushes. Here a stained glass panel window depicts the Cunard liner RMS Queen Mary, launched on the Clyde in 1936: a Spitfire flies above, no doubt the choice of Thomas Taylor who had flown with Coastal Command and Transport Command in the war. It is said that much of the woodwork was a mock-up of part of the Queen Mary displayed at the huge 1938 Empire Exhibition in Glasgow and was stored during the war by a firm of builders known to the Taylors, although the official programme for the exhibition makes no mention of, or advertisement for such an exhibit. The only changes have been the replacement of floor coverings, the new gents’ at the rear and the addition of a 1950s ladies’ for the first time (hence the Formica-panelled walls, as also found at the Laurieston Bar).

General information about historic pub interiors

This city centre bar is an amazing survivor; refitted in 1938, it has barely altered since. It is one of three impressive 1930s Art Deco survivors in Glasgow - the others being the Portland Arms, also in this guide, and Rogano's an upmarket seafood restaurant and bar. Situated in the ground floor of a late 18th-century four-storey building, the bar has been owned by the same family for 40 years; its name comes from the two steps into the pub. Has an Art Deco frontage of Vitrolite panelling and frosted glass window, one of which was replaced in 2006.

The interior is complete with sleek veneer-panelled walls, the original back gantry of Australian walnut, and the original bar counter. The hooped stall on the counter indicates an area for use only by bar staff offering waiter service to the customers in the splendid sitting room at the rear left. This small room has more sleek veneer panelled walls, original fixed seating and a stained glass window depicting the Cunard liner the R.M.S. Queen Mary, built at Clydebank and launched in 1936: an aeroplane flies above. The bell-pushes worked until recently and table service was provided (a shame this rare institution has been discontinued). The only major physical changes have been the replacement of floor coverings, the new gents' toilets at the rear and the adding of a ladies' for the first time in the 1950s (the toilets have Formica panelling on the walls as at the Laurieston Bar on Bridge Street).

Other surviving Art Deco interiors can be found at these Heritage Pubs Three Pigeons, Halifax, West Yorkshire; Vale Hotel, Arnold, Nottinghamshire; Test Match, West Bridgeford, Nottinghamshire; Duke (of York), Bloomsbury, London WC1; Portland Arms, Glasgow; and Frews Bar, Dundee; in the Sporting Memories Lounge.

General information about historic pub interiors
Seen some incorrect or missing details? let us know.
Opening Times Unavailable
Spotted an error with the opening times? Let us know

Current beers

There are no beers listed. Add a beer or submit a beer score.

Steps Bar, Glasgow

Add it to our list and share what's currently being served!.
Are you a CAMRA member? Contribute by submitting a beer score
Spot a Beer
Submit beer score
Do you know what Regular beers or changing beers this Pub serves? Let us know
Your scores
Join CAMRA to access beer scoring and view scores for other pubs.
Become a member.
Retrieving scores
You have no beer scores submitted.

Facilities
Sports TV Sports TV
Features
Real Heritage Pub Real Heritage Pub
Transport
Close to bus routes (40m)
Close to metro (650m)
St Enoch
Nearby Station (250m)
Argyle Street
Are these pub facilities or features correct? Let us know

Nearby

View All
(Pub, External, Key). Published on 23-06-2021
Blane Valley
Pub
0.0 miles - 76 Glassford Street, Merchant City, Glasgow, G1 1UP
(Pub, Key). Published on 30-10-2014
Rab Ha's
Real Ale Available
Pub
0.0 miles - 81 Hutcheson Street, Merchant City, Glasgow, G1 1SH
(Pub, Bar). Published on 08-11-2016
DogHouse Merchant City (BrewDog)
Pub
0.0 miles - 99 Hutcheson Street, Merchant City, Glasgow, G1 1SN
(Pub, External, Key). Published on 15-08-2021
Gallery
Pub
0.1 miles - 101 Brunswick Street, Merchant City, Glasgow, G1 1TF
(Pub, External, Key). Published on 15-08-2021
Brunswick Hotel - Amsterdam Bar
Pub
0.1 miles - 108 Brunswick Street, Merchant City, Glasgow, G1 1TF
(Pub, External, Key). Published on 15-08-2021
Katie's Bar
Pub
0.1 miles - 17 John Street, Merchant City, Glasgow, G1 1HP
(Pub, External, Key). Published on 17-11-2021
Gin 71
Pub
0.1 miles - 4 Virginia Court, Merchant City, Glasgow, G1 1TN
(Pub, External, Key). Published on 11-08-2021
Thundercat
Pub
0.1 miles - 86 Miller Street, City Centre, Glasgow, G1 1DT
(Pub, External, Key). Published on 11-08-2021
Spiritualist
Pub
0.1 miles - 62 Miller Street, City Centre, Glasgow, G1 1DT
(Pub, External, Key). Published on 15-08-2021
Committee Room No 9
Pub
0.1 miles - 18 John Street, Merchant City, Glasgow, G1 1JQ

Grab a copy of the Heritage Pub Guide for Scotland

Introduction This guide describes the 116 pubs identified by CAMRA as having interiors of national or regional historic or architectural importance, plus a further 24 whose interiors are of some regional interest. Scotland has over 4000 pubs so why do...

Historic pub interiors
Home
© Campaign for Real Ale 2023 - 2024