Remembering Buck Rogers Burger Station: Glasgow’s own futuristic sci-fi diner of the early 80s

Ask any Glaswegian of the 1980s about their favourite sci-fi burger joint and they’ll surely recount fond memories of the super retro-futuristic world that was Buck Rogers Burger Station.

Walking into the kitsch diner was like walking onto the set of the American TV show ‘Buck Rogers in the 25th century’. The Buck Rogers character stretched back through comic strips and serialised films from 1928 onwards.

Buck’s was well-known for its Americana retro sci-fi theme, the interior and furnishings of the restaurant were kitted out to look like the interior of a space station - complete with sci-fi styled servers dressed as aliens or characters from the show.

Most fondly remembered however were the ‘robot dancers’ - Glaswegians in big chunky metal-like costumes that would dance like an automaton.

Opening next to Tam Shepherd’s on Queen Street in the latter half of 1982, the burger station was actually a version of an American restaurant based on the show, but it was only one if its kind in the UK.

There were plans to open a second Buck’s diner in Edinburgh and a third in Liverpool at the top of the Radio City Tower - these plans never came to fruition however.

The restaurant was as atmospheric as they come - decorated as if it was a real space station, the restaurant was dimly lit in places, with floor lighting and a smoke machine giving the diner a real retro sci-fi feel. Everything was either grey or silver or some other shade of metallic, complete with slick fibreglass chairs and tables.

Those that were kids at the time will remember the panels around the walls and flight-deck area, which were complete with sticky buttons for young Glaswegians to play with.

The name is often misremembered as ‘The Buck Rogers Bar’ or ‘The Buck Rogers Cafe’ (it was actually Buck Rogers Burger Station, in keeping with the American sci-fi theme) - but to regulars and staff it was simply known as Buck’s.

One of the biggest draws to the restaurant (whose clientele was diverse, the concept was very attractive, particularly to Gary Numan fans or ‘Numanoids’ as they were known at the time) was the upstairs mini film studio.

In the film studio the staff would record short films that were displayed on small TV’s across the restaurant - with one large-screen projector that showed episodes of Buck Rogers in the 25th century, until they lost the license in 1983.

The mini film studio was kitted out like a space ship, complete with separate departments like the cockpit, sick bay, and a command deck. Customers could use the kit to edit themselves into an episode of Buck Rogers.

It was all very hi-tech, particularly at the time in the early 80s. For a while kids could even get their own personalised birthday messages from the actors and take it home on a VHS.

In the second half of 1983, the restaurant lost the license to use the Buck Rogers name - which caused the operaters to change their named to ‘Buck’s Burger Station’, expertly dodging international copyright law.

The burger station was only around in Glasgow for a little over a year, closing towards the end of 1983 after a fire in a carpet shop above the diner caused irreparable damage, but the bizarre yet mega-popular concept restaurant stuck around in the minds of young Glaswegians to this day.

In the 90s, the same building would host the same customers, now a lot more grown up - as Archaos, the iconic 90’s Glasgow club, opened on the same premises, 10 years later.

To read more about Buck Roger’s Burger Station, including video and interviews with staff at the time, check Retro Mash’s series of article’s on the topic.