Waterloo Bar

About this place Waterloo Bar

Waterloo Bar on Argyle Street lays claim to being Scotland's largest gay bar and one of the most historically significant gay venues in the country. The building has been a pub since 1867 and has been operating as a gay bar since the 1980s — making it one of the oldest gay venues in Scotland. The bar is a proper Scottish pub rather than a styled gay venue: three substantial rooms, a large regular clientele, sports screens when the football is on, and the kind of democratic atmosphere that Glasgow's social culture naturally produces. The Argyle Street location — just west of the city centre and accessible from both Central Station and the underground — makes it one of the most central gay venues in Glasgow. Waterloo Bar operates as the anchor of Glasgow's gay scene in the same way that traditional pubs anchor communities: it is where you go first, it is where you end up, and it is where the regulars have been sitting for 30 years. No pretension, no door policy, affordable drinks.