This pub is something of an architectural landmark. Designed by John Baird, its iron and glass construction was inspired by Joseph Paxton’s Crystal Palace, a huge greenhouse-like building, the centrepiece of the Great Exhibition of 1851. It was built during 1855–56 to the designs of John Baird, who had used an exposed iron frame as early as 1827 in the hammerbeam roof of the nearby Argylle Arcade.