Read all about it…

We’re located in the old offices of the Glasgow Evening Citizen, the first evening paper in the city, read by all and sundry for over a century. Our exterior still bears the original signage and our logo a fitting tribute to the Glasgow institution. You can lose some time on the way to our restrooms, where headlines from old front pages line the wall and catch the eye.

The Evening Citizen

The Evening Citizen, was an evening version of the Glasgow Citizen (a daily newspaper founded in 1842) and was first published in August 1864. Founded by James Hedderwick, a University of London dropout, the publication became one of Glasgow’s most successful newspapers. The newspaper moved to our address on St Vincent Place in 1889, in a specially commission building designed to accommodate the offices and printing presses.

The building itself is of architectural significance, it took four years to build and was the first red sandstone building in the city at the time. It was designed by T L Watson in Dutch Renaissance style with 6 asymmetric bays. The elaborate stone carvings were by James Hendry who was a draftsman to Watson at the time. It was also one of the first buildings in the city to be fully electric, with the newspaper quick to link to the Waterloo Street power station built in 1892. It is listed Category A in Scotland.

Hedderwick’s success allowed him to move on to establish other evening newspapers throughout the UK, most notably the London Echo. The Citizen comprised of a daily edition, an evening edition and a weekly supplement. In 1881, Hedderwick was granted an honorary doctorate from the University of Glasgow. We opened as The Citizen in September 2017 and have become a new part of the history of Glasgow.

Art and photography

Specially commissioned artwork, original documentary photography of the city and pages from the Glasgow Evening Citizen fill the walls, providing a historical and satirical exhibition of the history of the building and the wonderful people of Glasgow who give this city its vibrancy and colour.

Stewart Fair was an original day “pap”, working as photographer at the Evening Citizen from the age of 15 until it printed its final edition in March 1974. In addition to photography for the day to day stories broke in the paper, Stewart captured life in Glasgow in the 60’s. We are very grateful that Stewart has given us permission to exhibit and use the images he took during his time at the Evening Citizen and you can view them around the walls of the restaurant.