' I want to make this the most accessible private club in the country'

The club was established in 1867 and took ownership of the twin townhouses on its current location in 1893. The peerless city architect John Keppie converted these into an active and purpose-built club for artists and exhibitions. He would later deploy the talents of a young Charles Rennie Mackintosh to design the magnificent exhibition gallery to the rear of the building which had been drying greens. The Mackintosh frieze in the gallery he designed is one of Scotland’s artistic jewels. This was the gang-hut for Glasgow Boys led by James Guthrie and EA Walton.

And yet, a mini-survey of friends and family revealed distressing levels of ignorance about The Glasgow Art Club. These ranged from “is it still going?” to “I thought they’d sold it to a nightclub franchise.” Once, these premises were brimming with lecturers and academics from the Glasgow School of Art, a gin-bottle’s throw over the road. It’s been claimed that students seeking a one-to-one with tutors were advised to reach them before 11.30am, for thereafter they’d be in the bar of the club.

Nor was this an establishment reserved for the elites. It had a louche clientele drawn from Glasgow’s nocturnal demi-monde. They were attracted by relatively modest annual membership fees, a frisky wine-list and no-nonsense food. The city’s legal, medical and financial chieftains were all members, but there were respectable people too.

I was first taken there by the late Jack McLean, then at the zenith of his storeyed newspaper career. He chastised me when I made to leave after a single-bottle, 90-minute lunch. “This is sacrilege,” he told me. “They didn’t put all these wonderful paintings on their walls just so you could leave after one and a half hours. They’re meant to keep you drinking until at least tea-time.”

Prior to this visit my last one had been 20 years ago with Lesley Duncan, The Herald’s then much-loved poetry editor (yes, we once had such a designation). Ms Duncan had wept when I told her I’d commissioned one of the last poems ever written by George Mackay Brown for The Scotsman. There were three possible reasons for Ms Duncan’s tears: that she’d been overcome by discovering that such a work existed; that I’d chosen to ask the great man to write it about “bloody football” or that the original, hand-written in his spidery, octogenarian script, had been lost when The Scotsman moved into new premises.

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Today, my tour-guide around the Glasgow Art Club is Gordon Yuill, its new operations director who has been tasked with effecting its rejuvenation. There is much to do. The end of its golden age had probably occurred in the middle of the 1990s as it became evident that membership of a private club did not possess the same cachet it once had. What was the attraction of rubbing shoulders with sheriffs, consultants and art teachers when you could frequent louder and faster places and share a space with artists like Charlie Nicholas, Jim Kerr and Bobby Bluebell?

Some of you might recognise Mr Yuill. He was the Maitre D’ at Rogano when it was Scotland’s premier place to see and be seen. It was he who had created the legend of Rogano’s fabled Table 16, “the most sought after table in Scotland” which (I swear he told me) was where Hollywood’s A-list would book months ahead just to say they’d been.

Lately, he’d emerged from retirement to restore the declining fortunes of the Glasgow Golf Club. His success led to a similar offer from the Glasgow Art Club, who had emerged dazed and confused from Covid with a declining membership and no real vision for the future.

“I want to open up the entire building,” he tells me. “And I want to open it to the city by making it easier to see these wonderful works of art. This is a private club, but I want to make it the most accessible private club in the country by keeping the cost of membership low and encouraging members to bring their friends and family. This place belongs to Glasgow and is one of its major cultural assets.”

He guides me though the rooms and expresses astonishment at how many treasures he found stowed away in closet. His first task was to bring them back into the light and find spaces on the walls.

He also sees the recent amalgamation with the troubled Paisley Art Institute, an equally revered club which sought a new home in Glasgow after its relationship with Paisley Museum became fraught. A quarter of its collection, including paintings by the Glasgow Boys and the Scottish Colourists are being auctioned later this month, with the cash helping to restore the upper rooms of the Glasgow Art Club and turn them into studios. A work by John Lavery, valued at around £400k is expected to fetch more than £2m.

Around every corner and in every room there are fresh enchantments. Just over there, on the floor of Mr Yuill’s temporary office space, lies a photograph taken by Eric Thorburn of Emilio Coia, resplendent in full evening dress and topped by an idolatrous black fedora. The bow tie is boisterous. The walls on either side of the staircase are hoaching with Champions League level artists

There’s a collection of bronzes that are worthy of an exhibition on their own and 18th century Japanese prints. We find some of Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s own drawings hanging almost bashfully above us as we turn into another room.

(Image: Glasgow Art Club)

Mr Yuill’s own favourite, haunting in its simplicity, is by the fine Scottish war artist Robert Henderson Blyth. It’s a haunting portrait of a young soldier with whom the artist went off to fight in the Second World War.

His aim is to restore the Glasgow Art Club’s former reputation for providing top-class food at reasonable prices in one of Glasgow’s grandest and most elegant settings. He feels that if people knew about this place they’d want to return and often. Quite literally, there is nowhere remotely like it in the West of Scotland and no place that can match its finery.

“We want to make it accessible and to reach a younger membership. We need to have younger artists in here and to make it a hub once more. Last week – for the first time since Covid – the kitchen and dining-room opened and for much longer: 1am-7pm, Monday to Wednesday; 10-11pm Thursday to Saturday. We’ve handed it over to Glasgow’s Open Doors later this month.”

The annual membership fee is around £400, reducing to £280 for under-30s and less again for students. I ask a friend who is known to frequent some of London’s top establishments what annual fees this place would command in the English capital. “North of a grand,” he said, probably more. “And they wouldn’t let riff-raff like you over the door.” Point taken.