Christopher Beanland unleashes his Insider Guide to Hipster Glasgow.
On one side a stunning rip-off of Corbusier’s Unite d’Habitation flirts with the idea that Glasgow could be the Marseille of the north. The Met Tower, once a college, is frayed at the edges but will soon be re-imagined as modernist city centre penthouses aimed at those with a penchant for mid-century design. On the other, the barmy 1960s extension to the Art College – the Mackintosh Building – soars right over a whole street with true pedal-to-the-metal brutalist swagger.
Hipster Glasgow announces itself with a skyline that the cognoscenti know is meaningful and exciting. No amount of braindead noughties focus grouping could ever create something so cool, despite those groups’ stated desire to attract visitors. What they create is awful because they are awful. This is the real thing. People Make Glasgow goes the tagline, even the spurious city catchphrases here are a cut above.
This city oozes class. It is a city of music and art. At King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut you can see where Oasis were signed by Alan McGee on the back of a beer mat. Glasgow has so many homegrown bands. At twin venues Mono and Stereo I eat vegan food and step into the rooms where everyone from Mogwai to Teenage Fanclub has treaded the boards.
At Citizen M you can twirl around in a Knoll chair in their refurbished first floor communal area and stare out of the window at the remarkable Savoy Centre, another 60s brutalist landmark. Glasgow-based artist Katie Young has just contributed a new artwork, an image of brightly coloured textiles wrapping around the lift core.
Citizen M has invested in a ton of other art works and their interior design has been awarded multiple times. With good wifi and plenty of desks it’s no surprise you see digital nomads and creatives working around the spacious communal zones, coffee in hand. Indigo is another design hotel that attracts knowing visitors – its cafe and bar is always buzzing.
Hipster Glasgow is easy to get to by train but that is set to get even easier when Lumo launches direct services from London St Pancras and Newcastle later this year, to Central Station.
I head past the grand old Central Station and its renewed station hotel, now a chic Voco outpost, towards west of the city centre over the bizarre canyon the M8 created when it was threaded through Charing Cross in Glasgow’s infamous 60s and 70s makeover that was derided for years but has actually created a fascinatingly bonkers cityscape. Chinaskis sits next to the motorway – a late bar where I hear cutting edge music from DJs and where the cool kids hang out.
At Five March, it feels like they’ve created a modern restaurant which would be at home in Paris or London. It’s really very good. Small plates are done with aplomb: burratina, peaches; roast potatoes with aioli and chimichurri; heritage tomatoes, melon; a chocolate tart with cherry for dessert sends sparks across my tongue. The interior is full of one-off artworks and dangling pothos and all the staff are young and energetic.
In Kelvingrove Park the next day the city swelters. Hipster Glasgow’s multicultural energy is apparent from the people slumped on the grassy slopes of this classic Victorian city park. True to form two people wearing giant dinosaur costumes saunter by – nothing usual in this quirky city.
In Kelvingrove Museum’s giftshop they have all sorts of fantastic Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Margaret Mackintosh posters, magazine covers and designs from the Jugendstil era when Glasgow was ahead of even Vienna and Berlin. At the Hunterian they have blended the old Mackintosh terraced house into the modern museum, it looks oddly as if it’s been eaten by a kind of brutalist monster. Inside you can see the furniture they have created. Nearby Glasgow University also contains a slew of amazing modernist buildings and a campus populated by cool folks.
Argyle Street in the West End is ground zero for all your hip weekend away needs. Bar Brooklyn serves cold lagers and has a sign which apes a NYC Subway entrance. Sano slings sourdough pizza and has outdoor tables for those rare and precious Scottish days when the sun pokes through and you can hear the happy folk belting out Proclaimers lyrics. Kudos is a noted brunch place where the coffees are on point.
The West End is also full of other hipster Glasgow places. There’s the Roots & Fruits Wholefoods shop where you can pick up all manner of fresh veggies and Scottish strawberries for a Kelvingrove Park picnic. Porter & Rye serves noted wines and steaks. Hinba is a speciality coffee shop with amazing Bridget Riley art on the walls and all manner of design-literate customers sipping cold brews and cortados. And if you want another fix of Mackintosh you can stop for tea and a scone at his beautifully preserved Willow Tea Rooms.
Don’t miss the art deco of the Beresford Building, which looks like it should be by the ocean in Miami’s South Beach rather than by the side of the Clyde. And in the city centre at Glasgow’s main Art Gallery you can see a Glasgow icon – the statue of Wellington which always wears a traffic cone on his head set at a jaunty angle.
On Sauchiehall Street after dark you can visit other music venues like Nice and Sleazy to see the next big thing in Glasgow music. And for a final dinner Celentano’s – next to the Cathedral – ups the ante. In this city of Italian immigrants, famed for its gelato and for the comic whimsy of Armando Iannucci, Celentano’s serves linguine with cod cheeks and a modernised affogato to finish.
Its chic rooms above the restaurant are perfect to crash out in. If you want to keep going the Glasgow Film Theatre is a perfect place to catch a movie. Celluloid geniuses like Bill Forsyth and Lynne Ramsay have captured Glasgow’s strange mix of horror and humour on film over the years and this beautiful deco cinema is the perfect place to catch arthouse releases.
And where better to finish this Insider Guide to Hipster Glasgow than House of Gods. Glasgow’s stylish boutique hotel has taken hospitality in the city to a new level. The low lit bar serves perfect cocktails and snacks. Upstairs they have rooms which make you feel like you’ve fallen asleep and woken up in an Agatha Christie novel. With wood panels, mirrors, brass and bronze, it feels like a decadent carriage on the Orient Express. Butlers bring you milk and cookies or prosecco and roll top baths add the indulgence.
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For more details on this Insider Guide to Hipster Glasgow please go to Visit Glasgow.
For his Insider Guide to Hipster Glasgow, Chris travelled with Lumo. Lumo will offer brand new direct trains several times per day from London King’s Cross to Glasgow Central from December 2025.
Rates from £95 per night
Rates from £99 per night
Rates from £127
Dinner served Mon to Sat (closed Sun)
