Drum & Monkey, Glasgow

Opulent ex-bank with lots of marble columns and ornate ceilings, a central bar dispenses some well kept cask beers and the usual keg suspects. It’s a Nicholsons pub so up to the middling to high quality you’ll expect from one of theirs. Other notable feature:- two copper lager tanks on one wall (blocking a window).

This place was packed when I arrived here on a Thursday evening. It's a bank conversion with an ornate interior as noted below. There were six beers listed on a board which I didn't bother to make a full note of but one was from London in the form of By The Horns Stiff Upper Lip. I went for the St Austell Harpoon Skipper which although in good nick was a ridiculous £4.35. I thought this was a typical Nicholson's rip off and certainly wouldn't return. It's GBG 2018 listed.

Large, attractive Nicholson’s pub with a prominent street corner location in what I presume is a former bank setting. You enter into a bare boarded room where you are immediately confronted by a marvellous peninsula bar with a dark wood counter decorated with an attractive relief panel front, simple pot shelf, mirrored bar back and impressive marble support pillar with a nice decorative capital. Similar pillars can be found throughout the rest of the pub, although most are round rather than the square one at the bar. These pillars support a high ceiling decorated with gold beams and ornate roses. Two raised seating areas straddle the entrance, including one which forms a rather snug little space. High tables and stools fill much of the area directly around the bar and most tables have glass tops, under which various displays of hops, malts, oats and the like have been displayed. To the left, there is an enormous fireplace which has sadly now been sealed off, whilst banquettes and chairs offer comfortable seating underneath nice panelled walls with marble slab uppers. The rear left leads you into a dining room, which I didn’t get around to exploring and there was a good soul and funk soundtrack playing quietly in the background throughout my stay. The usual reliable Nicholson’s ale selection was available and included Inveralmond Lia Fail, Thornbridge Jaipur and The January Blues, Exmoor Gold, Roosters Citra and their own Nicholson’s Pale Ale. My pint of the Lia Fail was in good nick and very tasty and I noticed they also had a couple of ‘brewery-fresh’ tanks of Innis and Gunn beer racked up to the right-hand side of the room. Like most Nicholson’s pubs, there are no real surprises here. You get a nicely restored interior with plenty of grandeur, a well-kept selection of ales and a smattering of corporate blandness which makes it, more often than not, worth spending a bit of time in. There are better pubs around the city for sure, but this is a good, solid fall-back option and well worth a look if on a crawl.