Wilson's.
4-6 Byres Road, Partick, Glasgow. G11 5JY.
Wilson's. 1991.
This popular west end establishment was built in 1904 and designed by architect William Reid, who specialised in public houses. The original bar had a horse shoe shaped counter. The first licensee was a lady, Mrs Jane Mitchell who held the licence for the Caledonian Tavern which was demolished when Byres Road was widened, her pub was a small cottage that sat in the middle of Byres Road, she then moved to her new premises at the foot of Byres Road when the newly built tenement with her pub on the ground floor was finished in 1904.
The Old Caledonian Tavern was established in 1880 by spirit merchant William Tweedie, he was born in Dumfries and came to Glasgow at an early age where he met his wife Jane Hutcheson. They set up home in Clarendon Place where they had a family of 3 boys and a daughter, William had his mother-in-law Jane Hutcheson living with them, a 69 year old widow.
Andrew Mitchell took over the Caledonian Tavern in 1887, his wife Jane Hutcheson Mitchell took over the licence when he died in 1897. Jane ran this old tavern until it was finally demolished and was replaced to it's present site. Mrs Mitchell occupied the licence until her death in 1915, the pub was then run by a trustee Edward B Tweedie until the end of the First World War, the licence was then in the same family for nearly 40 years.
After the war the licence was taken over by Owen Jones, he also ran the White House Bar on Maryhill Road, his two pubs were taken over by Thomas B McConnell in the late 1950s. Robert Morgan Wilson then took over the pub in 1969, he ran Wilson's Bar on Maryhill Road at the corner of North Woodside Road, now the Woodside Inn, the same family that ran James D Wilson, Sauchiehall Street. Wilson's, Byres Road and James D Wilson, West Nile Street.
When I passed Byres Road the other day I noticed that Bar Milano formerly Wilson's was closed down 2007.
Bar Milano. 2007.
End.
