The Hidden Glasgow Forums

First of all, hello to all forists.

I write from Germany and my English is not the best.
Maybe I am completely wrong here with my question.

If that is so, I apologize.

My question, especially to the older forists, is as follows:

My mother was an Au-Pair girl in Glasgow 60 years ago.
She often tells me about this time and is now a lady of over 80 years.

In her stories there is often a "Cafe Upstairs". This must have been at this time, about 1958,
a popular dance cafe in Glasgow.

Since I will soon be going to Scotland with my mother, I would also like to visit this place with her.
Unfortunately she can't remember the address of the Cafe Upstairs and of course I have no chance to know where it was.

Of course the cafe will no longer exist after this time. But I would like to lead my mother to this place, because of the old times. Maybe she remembers the surroundings and so the memories come back.

If there are only younger members in this forum, it would be nice if they would ask their grandparents about the Cafe Upstairs.

Thank you very much.

Hello mucman, do you have any further details beyond what you have posted? Was the name of the establishment "Cafe upstairs" or is this just how she remembers it?
Was it a Cafe or a dance hall?

My first thought was the Willow tearooms on Sauchiehall street as this is indeed a cafe thats upstairs and is quite famous but the "popular dance cafe" part of your request has thrown me.

Hope we can help,

Dave.

Hello Dave,

Thank you very much for your kind reply and your efforts in this matter.

I spoke again with my mother and looked at records from that time.

It seems that the Cafe Upstairs has been in the Sauchiehall St and in the lower part was a cinema. The dance cafe was probably nearby.

Can you possibly use this information to locate the exact location of the Cafe Upstairs?

Kindest regards

mucman

Quite a few cinemas in Sauchiehall Street had cafes - most famous were the La Scala:

http://www.scottishcinemas.org.uk/glasgow/lascala.html

And the King's/Vitagraph:

http://www.scottishcinemas.org.uk/glasg ... graph.html

The latter might be more likely as it was definitely nearer the dance halls - especially the almost adjacent Locarno, which itself was formerly a cinema:

http://www.scottishcinemas.org.uk/glasgow/charingx.html

Gary