This year marks my sixth year as a student at GCU (through choice, I’m not just thick) and somewhere I’ve spent many hours over the course of my time here, is the pub.
Pub culture in Glasgow has been constantly evolving since its inception: From the public houses where workers would break their pay packets on the way home to their less than impressed spouses, to the social hubs where people from all walks of life gather nowadays; It’s interesting to look into the shift in the culture, even in the relatively short time I’ve been visiting the boozers in this city.
The use of the word ‘evolving’ earlier was potentially a poor choice of words when talking about pub culture in Glasgow, seeing as evolving would insinuate that it is getting better.
Now, the question on everyone’s lips, is the culture changing, or am I just getting older and more crabbit?
Well, it’s probably a bit of both.
When I was 18 (here we go), going out was a big deal.
There was so much freedom, moving to a new city and being able to experience new things and meet new people.
The older crowd are bound to find new 18-year-olds in the pub annoying, not an attack but a reality, I too was an annoying 18-year-old once.
But there were always places for us to go, and gradually merge into the culture that was already established.
However, in 2020 we had this massive global pandemic (remember that?) and the pubs closed for the better part of two years, with many to never re-open.
And thus, when the surviving establishments finally did open back up again, they were flooded with a heap of 18–20 year-olds who had never set foot in a pub outside of having a Sunday roast with their family.
This is when the culture changed forever.
It’s not the fault of the younger mob by any means, the pandemic just wiped out any sense of established culture that we had.
It meant we needed to rebuild from the ground up any sense of culture we hoped to have.
And don’t get me wrong, I feel like we have managed to achieve that.
Other than the massively inflated prices (a fault of the pandemic and Government, not the 18-year-olds of today) and general negative attitudes (a fault of being old, crabbit and Scottish, also not on the young’uns) there is still an enjoyable, rich culture surrounding going out in Glasgow.
The live music in this city is second to none in the UK at least, the anecdotes that you can hear from strangers at the bar and the patter you can have with your mates.
There’s so much that goes into it that makes it a truly beautiful experience.
You don’t even need to drink.
More and more students are teetotallers, and there are plenty of places that drinking isn’t the main attraction: Pool halls, darts venues, karaoke bars.
The list goes on.
So yes, the culture has changed.
Is it better now? Well, life before the pandemic always seems like an idyllic distant memory.
Is it worse? That is yet to be seen but I doubt it.
Change is scary yes, but without it, we’re never going to get anywhere new.
So don’t listen to people telling you tales of ‘the good old days’, get out there and make some memories of your own.
That’s what it’s all about.
