Travel: Social Hub Glasgow is no ordinary hotel

The Social Hub in Glasgow is the perfect base.

We’re in the lift of Glasgow’s hottest, newest “stay and play” location, The Social Hub, where a grey-haired gent with a walking frame is chatting to a local woman who’s about to head out into the rain.

From their banter, they seem like neighbours and friends. We later learn they are.

On the ground floor, in the urban chic foyer and communal area – with easy seating, gaming station, sound system and vinyl records for guests to enjoy – a suited and booted 30-something businessman dumps his briefcase on a nearby bench to answer a table tennis challenge thrown out by a beaming teenage Asian student.

We’re tempted to spectate as the contest heats up but become engaged in conversation with the older gentleman, who tells us he is here on business from Los Angeles and this place is “home from home” for him: “Except for the weather,” he quips.

He is a long-stay guest, and the Glasgow lass is his equally long-stay, much younger neighbour. Meanwhile, my pal and I – both gals of “a certain age” – are here from Aberdeen on a shopping and sightseeing jolly.

The Social Hub, which opened last year at Candleriggs, smack bang in the heart of Glasgow’s vibrant Merchant City, clearly attracts an eclectic, cosmopolitan clientele. That’s because this is no ordinary hotel. It is breaking the mould in leisure, work, and student stays. It is “hybrid hospitality with a purpose” and with a conscience too, having been certified by B Lab (the non-profit organisation behind the B Corp movement) for meeting rigorous social and environmental standards “to help create a better world for all”.

Founded by Edinburgh man Charlie MacGregor in 2003, the brand operates hubs combining hotel and student accommodation, food and beverage, events and co-working spaces in 18 locations across the UK and continental Europe.

Having been warmly welcomed in the Hub’s cavernous bar and eatery with a delicious cocktail or three, we determine to explore the less “touristy” side of Glasgow.

Just outside the Hub, we take the bus to Finnieston in pursuit of the Hidden Lane. An archway off Argyle Street opens on to a cobbled lane and a higgledy-piggledy cluster of studios and workshops housing art and pottery, jewellery makers, and musicians, antique stores and craft shops.

We especially fall in love with Bluebelle Vintage, which sells everything from top hats to swinging ’60s minis and exquisite knitwear, while Mystic Pixie’s handmade jewellery has us ooh-ing and ahh-ing over the quirky, original and beautiful designs.

Laden with shopping bags, we Boomers head back to the Hub for a delicious evening meal, followed by a game of ping-pong with the Zoomers. Generation gap? What generation gap?

After a great night’s sleep in a room that towers over the city with a floor-to-ceiling corner window offering spectacular views, we help ourselves to the hub’s fab buffet breakfast and head off to the ‘City of the Dead’.

Glasgow’s Necropolis is a sight to behold, chillingly atmospheric in the dark and dreary winter and positively beautiful on a sunny day. With entry over the so-called “Bridge of Sighs”, it was modelled on the famous Pere-Lachaise cemetery in Paris.

You won’t find anyone as famous as Jim Morrison or Oscar Wilde buried here, but its thousands of tombs and monuments to the great and the good of Victorian Glasgow – some designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh – are said to have enticed sightseeing celebrities like Hugh Jackman, Miley Cyrus, and Patti Smith to visit.

Friends of Glasgow Necropolis offer tours of the crypts, mausoleums and catacombs, along with tales of Gothic ghostly goings-on, but we recommend booking in advance.

Glasgow is a city of art, and you only need look up to witness it. While the Gallery of Modern Art, the Glasgow Gallery and the Centre for Contemporary Art are all within striking distance of one another, you’ll also find jaw-dropping wall art on the streets, with tours offered by the City Centre Mural Trail. The most awe-inspiring for us is the vibrant but tender modern-day reimagining of the city’s patron saint, Mungo.

Preparing to leave on a Sunday morning, we muse how St Mungo centuries before, at the age of just 25, was moved to set up his Glasgow Christian ministry out of love for the world and all that is in it. We think he’d approve of The Social Hub.

As if bang on cue, the doors of its auditorium spring open, and out spill an ebullient religious congregation – some in traditional African dress, with babies on hips – effusively greeting other ‘hubbers’.

We’re sure it’s a sign.

P.S. The Social Hub in Glasgow is among just 212 hospitality organisations – and fewer than 50 in Europe – certified by the burgeoning B Corp movement, which measures a company’s entire social and environmental impact. Globally, there are now more than 9,000 B Corps, of which more than 2,000 are in Europe.

Factfile

The average daily rate for hotel rooms at The Social Hub is £102. Student and extended stays start at £29 per night. thesocialhub.co/glasgow Tel: 0141 5360 788