Empire Bar, Burnbank, Hamilton

This is typical workingman’s style pub with a central island bar and appears to have the interior changed little in decades. The pub interior is a Regionally Important Historic Interior on website http://www.heritagepubs.org.uk/pubs/pubguide.asp?Country=Scotland&County=Glasgow+and+West+of+Scotland&Town=Hamilton&PubName=&TownName=&PubSort=Location&PubSearch=Search+for+all+historic+pub+interiors. The pub is worth visiting even just for its interior. There is parking available in the surrounding streets and local buses from Hamilton town centre.

Stepping into this place was like stepping back several decades in time. It has the air of an early seventies working man’s boozer with linoleum flooring, brewery and distillery mirrors on the walls, a pool table, a darts board and a predominantly male clientele. Even the name seems rather outmoded nowadays. Having said that, although it could do with redecorating and cleaning up, it’s actually quite an impressive old pub, architecturally, and definitely the better of Burnbank’s two surviving bars. It consists of one large, rectangular room with a full island bar occupying a considerable amount of space in the middle. There are ornate, if rather decrepit looking, cornices and support pillars and arched alcoves containing more seating along one side. On draught are McEwan’s Export (at £2.80 a pint), McEwan’s 60 Shilling, Guinness, Strongbow cider and Carling, Tennent’s and Foster’s lagers.