Glasgow’s Baby Grand is closing after 40 years at Charing Cross so we payed it one final visit

National World - LocalTV

The iconic Baby Grand diner is closing down as the building it is situated in is being redeveloped. We spoke to owner Billy ahead of its closure.

Transcript

00:00You know Marty Perlow?

00:02I do know Marty Perlow.

00:03It's Caitlin's mate.

00:04Hi, my name's Billy McInerney

00:06and we're in Baby Grand at Charing Cross, Glasgow.

00:10We took over this building in 1983.

00:15At that point in time it was simply a concrete,

00:19concrete walls, concrete ceiling, concrete floor.

00:22Took us a year to do what we were doing

00:25and we opened on October 1984.

00:29Kind of American, French diner

00:33that was pretty unusual for Glasgow at that time.

00:36If you go back to Scottish Opera,

00:39who's on the right hand side along there,

00:41they were huge at that time.

00:43They had a big orchestra,

00:45you know, 30 odd people in the orchestra,

00:4830 odd people in the chorus.

00:50Top names in opera from all over the world

00:53but the demise of Scottish Opera was about 2003, 2004.

00:58We lost about 60, 70 potential customers

01:02and it got basically worse and worse.

01:06You'd HMRC down in India Street,

01:10they went, you'd the social work department

01:13and the education department

01:15in the other side of India Street opposite HMRC.

01:19It went, the trade union people round in Bath Street,

01:24that went.

01:25Come 2014-15, there was very little left.

01:29We did do a very expensive refurbishment in 2014-15.

01:34I'm not sure what the logic, looking back, of what that was

01:38but the area has just gone like that.

01:41It's not just the changes around it,

01:44it's the costs around it.

01:46Utilities have been through the roof.

01:49Marty Pellow used to come in a lot.

01:51You know Marty Pellow?

01:54Ricky Ross used to come in a lot.

01:57Charlie Nicholas.

01:59We've had loads of quite famous opera singers.

02:03Elaine C. Smith.

02:05There's been loads of folk who've come and gone

02:09and some of them are still around.

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