After St Enoch, (on the Outer Circle, anyway) and as you head south and clockwise, the first stop you meet is Bridge Street. This is the famous Gorbals, mutilated beyond all recognition by the City Fathers and bulldozers over the last thirty years. Oh bring back those good ol' face-slashing, typhoid-ridden warrens!

Coming out the front doors of the underground station and turning right, you are faced with a car park. Beyond the tarmac you can gaze in wonder on the facades of two pubs, The Laurieston and The Glaswegian.

Boswell sat in these very chairs on their way north. In fact this is the "Tardis" pub as used by Glasgow's finest time lords (the inside seems bigger than the outside - or is it the other way round?). The toilets bear this out and rumour has it that they are listed (or is that listing?). Regardless of this, we make no secret of the fact that this place is a perennial SUB favourite. Bar staff remain among the friendliest on the Sub, and although the drinks run to the McEwans/ Tennants/ nothing else Glasgow standard, you are usually guaranteed a good pint, while the food (pie, peas and gravy) is sublime. Sadly the informative safety poster which used to reside on the wall by the door is no longer there - on one visit a member of staff tried to find it to give to us but his efforts to locate it were in vain. However on our more recent visits we have been greatly amused by a new sign in the lounge bearing the legend "No Ladies supplied in the Bar." The pub is particularly Sub-friendly and on our last subcrawl we were asked by the staff to pose for a photo to go on their "subcrawl wall of fame" (look for a pic of three blokes with a look of "Crimewatch" about them).

The Glaswegian is technically closer to the stop, although its later opening time makes the Laurieston the safer bet for an early Sub. Unusually for a pub in these parts, the Glaswegian has a bit of an affinity with Rangers Football Club (yes, we are being ironic here). In fact, the bar staff's shirts have little RFC club crests on them. Having said that, the Rangers bit pales into insignificance compared with the watering holes at Kinning Park. The pub itself is a fairly spacious affair, with a large bar on one side, a long continuous row of seating with a few tables on the opposite wall, and a small stage at the far end (where it is believed a reincarnation of Bruce Forsyth's "Play Your Cards Right" takes place once a week).

All things considered, we prefer the Laurieston of the two pubs. However, by choosing the Glaswegian as your Bridge Street pub, you leave open the possibility of returning to the Laurieston as your hostelry of choice for West Street.

As with the Kensington in Cessnock, the Laurieston juke box used to have 'Lost Weekend' by Lloyd Cole and the Commotions on it. Why not try singing your own lyrics to the tune, along the lines of:

It was a lost weekend on a sub around Glasgow

Ten pints of lager and a couple of Gins.

And the sickest joke was [INSERT TOPICAL COMMENT HERE]

Wee Dinky train in a terminal spin, oh'

Did You Know? The Laurieston is named after the part of the Gorbals which incorporates the pub and the Bridge Street underground station. The area is in turn named after James Laurie who designed the first street plans in 1801. So there.