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The Merchant City and a pint at Babbity Bowster
Glasgow

The Merchant City – an Evening Stroll and Babbity Bowster

A few hours, from Queen Street station and back.

The route

The Merchant City is the old heart of Glasgow's trade, a grid of grand streets where the tobacco merchants kept their warehouses, and it's lovely to wander on an evening as the lights come on.

At the far side waits Babbity Bowster, a much-loved pub in an 18th-century building on Blackfriars Street, with cask ales, a beer garden and folk music in the bar. It's an easy evening, all on foot from Queen Street station.

Before you go

  1. Book accommodation nearby

    If you are staying over: here are ours nearest where the day starts and ends.

    The nearest of ours is Moment Blythswood Street. Sleeps 2.

  2. Book a table at Babbity Bowster

    Book a table at Babbity Bowster on its website or by phone if you want to eat; it opens every day from noon until midnight, and there's no need to book just for a drink.

The day

Glasgow

A short, easy evening stroll on flat city streets, from a statue in a traffic cone to an old pub where the fiddles often come out.

About two and a half hours

  1. Merchant City

    Merchant City

    An attraction

    From Queen Street station, it's 6 minutes' walk to Royal Exchange Square, where the Duke of Wellington sits on his horse outside the Gallery of Modern Art, almost always wearing a traffic cone. From there, wander east through the Merchant City, where Glasgow's tobacco lords stored their sugar, tea and tobacco in the 18th century.

    More about Merchant City

  2. 13 min on foot

    Babbity Bowster

    A drink

    Walk about 9 minutes east along Ingram Street to Babbity Bowster at 16 to 18 Blackfriars Street, in an 18th-century building said to be by James Adam. It's been a pub since the mid-1980s, with cask ales and good wines, food in the restaurant upstairs, and a beer garden that fills in summer. Folk musicians often play in the bar, best on a Saturday. It opens every day from noon until midnight; book a table if you want to eat. Queen Street station is 13 minutes' walk back.

If it rains

On a wet evening, walk straight there along Ingram Street, 15 minutes from Queen Street station, and stay in the bar.

Babbity Bowster