A new pub with a ‘rare' 9 am licence has opened its doors in Glasgow this week.
McLennan's welcomed its first customers on Bonfire Night, taking over the former Whistler on the Green site at 5 Greendyke Street.
As fireworks lit up the city, the venue marked its arrival by projecting its handwritten logo onto the nearby McLennan Arch, the Glasgow Green landmark named after the Victorian bailie who inspired the bar.
The new pub is the ninth venue from Glasgow hospitality group Merchant Pubs & Bars and follows the opening of Anderson's Pub + Institute in July.
By day, McLennan's will operate as a traditional pub serving coffee and panettone for breakfast, followed by toasties, soup and chips until 6 pm.
However, the venue also holds what its owners describe as one of Glasgow's "rare old licences", allowing it to serve alcohol with food from 9 am, seven days a week.
In the evening, the kitchen closes, and the venue shifts its focus to cocktails, with its drinks menu drawing from the history of the old Saltmarket.
McLennan's is named after Bailie James McLennan, a Glasgow businessman and civic figure who lived from 1838 to 1899. He became a partner in wine and spirits merchant Alexander Bryce & Co in 1875 and was elected Deacon Convener in 1884. In later life, as a bailie and Justice of the Peace, he helped preserve the arch that now bears his name at the entrance to Glasgow Green.
The pub's logo, created by agency Big Think, is based on McLennan's handwritten signature.
For its opening night, the design was projected onto the arch by Double Take Projections, the company run by twin brothers Steven and David McConnachie. The firm has previously created projections on landmarks including the Forth Bridge, Queensferry Crossing, Edinburgh Castle and Glasgow's SEC Armadillo.
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After 6pm, the bar at McLennan's takes its cue from Victorian Glasgow, with a cocktail list based on tales from the 'underworld' of old Saltmarket. Titled A Miscellany of Outrageous Drinks by James McLennan, the menu is designed in the style of a 19th-century chapbook, with each cocktail telling a story from the area's past.
Ewan Angus, group bars manager at Merchant Pubs & Bars, said: "It's been so exciting to create McLennan's from the ground up.
"I loved researching James McLennan and the old Saltmarket. There are so many incredible stories, and every drink on the menu has one behind it.
"Seeing his name lit up on the Arch last night, right outside our front door, was the perfect way to begin.
"I can't wait to share all our new creations with Glasgow. Pick your poison. Or don't."
McLennan's is open from 9am until midnight, seven days a week at 5 Greendyke Street in Glasgow .
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