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Mosaic threshold at the entrance to the Corona Bar on Pollokshaws Road on the Southside of Glasgow. The symbol in the middle is a play on the local place name Crossmyloof.
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#glasgow #crossmyloof #coronabar #tiles #mosaic #architecture #glasgowhistory #maryqueenofscots
#scottishhistory
Loof or Luif is an old Scots word for palm, and the name is said to have originated with a local fortune-teller who offered to tell Mary Queen of Scots her fate as she headed for a showdown with the Earl of Moray at the Battle of Langside in 1568, as long as the Queen crossed her loof (i.e. crossed her palm) with silver. Hence, the use of a palm with a cross on it (or in other words a crossed palm) on Clarke and Bell's 1912 Corona Bar.
@thisismyglasgow There’s another one, I think, where she held up a crucifix to her supporters to show she was against the heretical Protestantism going on under Elizabeth or something along those lines. So she had a cross on her loof, as it were. I read that’s why there’s a cross on her palm in some of the carvings / paintings.
@QuokkaMocha I think there's several possible stories behind it, but this was the one I thought I'd go with. 
@thisismyglasgow I like that one better, I have to say, and that sort of thing was so common at the time, having your fortune told before doing anything, so it seems plausible to me.