The Great British Pub

How can you wipe out a centuries old tradition, not confined only to British culture but spanning the globe north south east and west.  

Where would we be without that nearby hostelry to bolster the spirits and keep us sane, well at least for the most part.  A little over indulgence sometimes can cause episodes of insanity but as they say .... par for the course!  It is up to the individual to know their limitations not a government decree - surely?

The not so long ago pandemic seemed to change the world and how it's people view their lives.  The adoption of a more sedentary (lazy?) home-fire existence, less going out and a whole lot more staying in, or at home - but is this new life healthy?  The one thing in this life freely available is air, not perhaps so fresh in densely populated areas but on the whole a lot more healthy than the stagnant air suspended in the average domicile, degraded by the many noxious substances (and sometimes people) used by every household.

For one, drinking at home rather than a walk or drive out to the nearest boozer is antisocial unhealthy and a thoroughly lonesome experience.  You might not miss the regular saloon bar bore (get to the back Nigel!) but the community spirit and local socializing is a lot to throw away for the sake of being too lazy to venture out.

Technology dictates we shop from the living room, we drink in the lounge (or garden shed if you're a bit sneaky), we work from home, we shun trips to the local restaurants in favour of take-aways.  Even banking can now be done entirely at home and who needs the expense and hassle of a holiday when you can immerse yourself in computer images of far away luxurious lands, free gratis and for nothing!

Is this really what we want as human beings, to be imprisoned by our own volition?  To be incarcerated because we just can't be bothered to get scrubbed-up and leave the house?

People like Rishi Sunak are getting a lot of stick at the moment but let's face it, he can't be blamed for the abysmal long term effects of a pandemic nor the way it was handled from one day to the next, yet this all comes with the mud slinging exercise of past and present ineptitude.  Contrary to 'populist' beliefs, you can't govern a nation single handed, it's a joint team and community effort and the only way forward - unless it's Bedlam you wish for!

The great British pub has seen many changes over the decades for varying reasons but do we really want to see it come to an end?  It is after all part of our heritage just as the taverna, the bodega, the bar, the clubs bring the world together, the pub is a meeting place.

Cheers!

Jeremy Clarkson’s ‘insane’ new venture exposes the demise of the great British pub

Downtrodden pubs are the latest target of the presenter’s novel brand of lobbying

Ben Wright
1 July 2024 • 6:02pm

Having achieved more than the National Farmers’ Union has ever done to highlight the plight of its members, it looks like Jeremy Clarkson is now bringing his own brand of accidental lobbying to another downtrodden industry.

“They’re closing at the rate of more than a thousand a year,” he wrote in this week’s Sunday Times. “You would have to be mad to buy one. Insane. So I’ve bought a pub.”

He’s right: it’s definitely a risky venture. The last few years have been a rolling horror show for the hospitality industry. The pandemic, rising prices and high energy costs have combined to sound the death knell for many boozers. The number of pubs in the UK has dropped by a quarter – from 60,800 to 45,800 – since the millennium, according to the British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA).

The chronic issues around staff shortages – which Clarkson highlights in his column – are very real and resulting in many pubs having to reduce the number of days and hours they are open.

Drinking habits are also changing. More people are boozing at home – a trend that appeared to be cemented by lockdown, but started long before it. By 2015, twice as much beer was bought in supermarkets than in pubs, clubs and restaurants combined, according to the BBPA.



Tim Martin, the outspoken boss of JD Wetherspoon, rarely misses an opportunity to complain about the “price disparity” between pubs and supermarkets, the result of what he sees as unjust tax discrepancies on VAT and a business rates system that benefits the scale of grocers. The gap widened further in April following a 9.8pc increase in the National Living Wage and a hike to business rates.

Fewer than a quarter of people rank going to the pubs and bars as one of their top five activities, according to research by PwC (the gym, watching streaming services and cafes all rank higher – meaning I now understand my fellow countrymen less and less). And, in one of the weirder acts of generational rebellion, younger people appear to be less fond of inebriation than their parents were.

One less frequently mentioned issue facing pubs is that they occupy buildings or land that is becoming increasingly sought-after by developers thanks to the UK’s stupefying inability to build new homes. Government statistics show that 239 pubs were either demolished or repurposed for other uses in the first three months of the year. That’s up by over half compared to the same period in 2023.

However, all is not lost. British pubs have a centuries-long track record of evolving to meet changing customer tastes.

In a recent interview with Bloomberg, Dr David Knight, an architect and co-editor of Public House, a history of London boozers, said pubs are “simultaneously deeply embedded in the structure of British society but… also capable of great change and innovation”.

There’s some evidence that the wider pub industry may have recently turned a corner and is, if not thriving, figuring out how to survive.

It helps that consumer confidence appears to be recovering and leisure spending is bouncing back: Barclaycard says there was a 5.9pc increase in spending in pubs, bars and clubs last year while spending in restaurants fell by 6.7pc, suggesting customers are opting for a more affordable casual dining experience.

In an increasingly cost-conscious world, the best pubs have found their niche is a step up from ultra-cheap fast food joints, better value than top-end restaurants and vastly more characterful than the private-equity-owned identi-kit chains that have homogenised the UK’s high streets.

Last month, Young’s and Fuller’s both announced strong results. Young’s, which owns more than 280 pubs, posted a 9pc rise in annual adjusted pre-tax profits to a record £49.4m. At Fuller’s, which has around 400 managed and tenanted pubs, pre-tax profits rose by 40pc to £14.4m. In May, JD Wetherspoon said it was shooting for annual profits at the top end of market expectations.

The challenges are clearly different for independent operators and the big pub groups and so are their tactics. Last year, Stonegate Group, the UK’s biggest pub operator and owner of the Slug & Lettuce brand, announced the introduction of “dynamic pricing” for drinks in 800 of its 4,000 locations. I imagine this would go down like a pint of cold sick in the Cotswolds and is probably best avoided by Clarkson.

But there are also some common themes in the pub-renaissance. Many have, for example, been adding hotel rooms to their properties. Improving the food offering is key – roughly 40pc of Wetherspoons’ sales now come from grub – as is catering to the UK’s growing army of coffee drinkers.

Clarkson has said he wants “absolutely everything” in his pub to be “grown or reared in Britain”. That means no Coca-Cola (fair enough) and no coffee (not such a good idea). Martin recently joked that free refills of Lavazza coffee “are thought to be responsible for spontaneous exhibitions of breakdancing among retired customers”.

Clarkson might also want to expand the provenance of his produce to include Ireland: both Wetherspoons and Young’s have mentioned the soaring popularity of Guinness among a widening range of customers, with sales of the black stuff soaring by 29pc over the last year at Young’s pubs.

“The gods of fashion have smiled upon Guinness,” according to Martin, “previously consumed by blokes my age, but now widely adopted by younger generations.”

Clarkson is no fan of Labour (he recently said he’d rather vote for his dog than Keir Starmer), but if the party does win this week’s election his new venture could well be affected by their somewhat sketchy plans for business rates and labour laws. The former would be warmly welcomed by pubs; the latter less so.

Nevertheless, there’s growing reason to hope that whatever the future holds, Clarkson’s new business should have every chance of earning him a little more than diddly squat.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/07/01/jeremy-clarkson-is-highlighting-another-industry-in-peril/

Exploring the History of Ceredigion's Pubs

Opening hours

The Beer House Act of 1840 required public houses to close at midnight in towns and 11 p.m. in rural areas but also enabled local authorities to decide on shorter opening hours if desired.

Before the outbreak of the First World War, normal opening hours were 6 am to 11 pm, Monday to Saturday in towns and 6 am to 10 pm in country districts.

The First World War

The authorities were especially concerned about long opening hours during the First World War. Lloyd George suggested that ‘drink is doing us more damage in the war than all the German submarines put together’. Many soldiers came to Aberystwyth during the War to be trained and they were able to purchase drinks throughout the day.

The Defence of the Real Act and the Temporary Restrictions Act enabled local authorities to reduce these opening hours. The Chief Constable of Cardiganshire recommended that alcohol could be purchased only between 10 am and 10 pm in Aberystwyth.

PUBLIC HOUSES HOURS

A special meeting of justices took place on Wednesday for the purpose of receiving the recommendation of the Chief Constable [of Cardiganshire] with regard to the restriction of hours for the sale of intoxicating liquors. At present public houses in the borough [of Aberystwyth] close at eleven p.m., and in the rural area at ten p.m. … the Chief Constable recommended that all the public houses in the borough should open at ten a.m. and close at ten p.m., and in the rural districts at ten a.m. and close at nine p.m. The Chairman thought it well that the public should understand that the houses were not closed for the sale of food, but for intoxicating liquors only. They could get their breakfast before ten a.m. It was proposed that the recommendation of the Chief Constable be adopted. The Chief Constable explained that the order would come into force immediately it had been confirmed by the Secretary of State.
Cambrian News and Merionethshire Standard, 16 April 1915

In February, 1916, the Government Control Board (which had powers over much of England and the whole of Wales), reduced opening hours in pubs and clubs to:

12-2.30 pm and 6-9 pm, or 6.30-9.30 pm on Mondays to Saturdays

12.30-2.30 pm and 6-9 pm on Sundays. (Pubs with a 7 day licence could serve bona fide travellers).

In March 1919, evening hours were extended: 6-9.30 pm and residents of a hotel of club could buy alcohol with a meal until 11 pm.

Two months later pubs could stay open until 10 pm.

In July, 1920 Sunday hours were extended in summer time 7–10pm, and soon these hours were applied to the whole year.

The Licencing Act of 1921 extended opening hours again: 11.30 am – 3 pm and 5.30-10 pm., Monday to Saturday and 12.30-2.30 pm. and 7-10 pm. on Sundays. These hours were in force until the next session of the local licencing committee who could amend them as long as they did not extend the total number of opening hours.

By the late 1980s pubs were allowed to sell alcohol at any time between 11am and 11pm.

The Licensing Act, 2003 which came into force in November 2005, enabled publicans to apply for licences for up to 24 hours a day.

http://pint-of-history.wales/en/opening-hours.php

The Great British Pub

Discover the origins of British and English Pubs and Inns…

Ben Johnson

Renowned the world over, the great British pub is not just a place to drink beer, wine, cider or even something a little bit stronger. It is also a unique social centre, very often the focus of community life in villages, towns and cities throughout the length and breadth of the country.

Yet it appears that the great British pub actually started life as a great Italian wine bar, and dates back almost 2,000 years.

It was an invading Roman army that first brought Roman roads, Roman towns and Roman pubs known as tabernae to these shores in 43 AD. Such tabernae, or shops that sold wine, were quickly built alongside Roman roads and in towns to help quench the thirst of the legionary troops.

It was ale, however, that was the native British brew, and it appears that these tabernae quickly adapted to provide the locals with their favourite tipple, with the word eventually being corrupted to tavern.

These taverns or alehouses not only survived but continued to adapt to an ever changing clientele, through invading Angles, Saxons, Jutes, and not forgetting those fearsome Scandinavian Vikings. In around 970 AD, one Anglo-Saxon king, Edgar, even attempted to limit the number of alehouses in any one village. He is also said to have been responsible for introducing a drinking measure known as ‘the peg’ as a means of controlling the amount of alcohol an individual could consume, hence the expression “to take (someone) down a peg or two”.

Taverns and alehouses provided food and drink to their guests, whilst inns offered accommodation for weary travellers. These could include merchants, court officials or pilgrims travelling to and from religious shrines, as immortalised by Geoffrey Chaucer in his Canterbury Tales.

Inns also served military purposes; one of the oldest dating from 1189 AD is Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem in Nottingham, and is said to have acted as a recruitment centre for volunteers to accompany King Richard I (The Lionheart) on his crusade to the Holy Lands.

Alehouses, inns and taverns collectively became known as public houses and then simply as pubs around the reign of King Henry VII. A little later, in 1552, an Act was passed that required innkeepers to have a licence in order to run a pub.

By 1577 it is estimated that there were some 17,000 alehouses, 2,000 inns and 400 taverns throughout England and Wales. Taking into account the population of the period, that would equate to around one pub for every 200 persons. To put that into context, that same ratio today would be approximately one pub for every 1,000 persons… Happy Daze!

Throughout history, ale and beer have always formed a part of the staple British diet, the brewing process itself making it a much safer option than drinking the water of the times.

Although both coffee and tea were introduced into Britain around the mid-1600s, their prohibitive prices ensured that they remained the preserve of the rich and famous. Just a few decades later however, things changed dramatically when cheap spirits, such as brandy from France and gin from Holland hit the shelves of the pubs. The social problems caused by the ‘Gin Era’ of 1720 – 1750 are recorded in Hogarth’s Gin Lane.


Hogarth's Gin Lane

The Gin Acts of 1736 and 1751 reduced gin consumption to a quarter of its previous level and returned some semblance of order back to the pubs.

The age of the stagecoach heralded yet another new era for the pubs of the time, as coaching inns were established on strategic routes up and down and across the country. Such inns provided food, drink and accommodation for passengers and crew alike, as well as changes of fresh horses for their continued journey. The passengers themselves generally consisted of two distinct groups, the more affluent who could afford the relative luxury of travelling inside the coach, and the others who would be left clinging on to the outside for dear life. The ‘insiders’ would of course receive the warmest greetings and be welcomed into the innkeepers private parlour or salon (saloon), the outsiders meanwhile would get no further than the inn’s bar room.

The age of the stagecoach, although relatively short-lived, did establish the precedence for the class distinctions that was continued in rail travel from the 1840s onward. Like the railways that operated a First, Second and even Third Class service, so the pubs evolved in a similar manner. Pubs of that time, even relatively small ones, would typically be split into several rooms and bars in order to cater for differing types and classes of customer.

In today’s ‘open-plan’ society such walls have been removed, and now anyone and everyone is welcome in the great British pub. So welcome, in fact, that almost one in four Britons will now meet their future wife or husband in a pub!

Historical Note: The native British brew of ‘ale’ was originally made without hops. Ale brewed with hops was gradually introduced in the 14th and 15th centuries, this was known as beer. By 1550 most brewing included hops and the expression alehouse and beerhouse became synonymous. Today beer is the general term with bitter, mild, ales, stouts and lagers simply denoting different types of beer.
A Special Thanks

Many thanks to English Country Inns for sponsoring this article. Their enormous directory of historic inns is perfect for those looking for a quirky weekend away, especially with their recent inclusion of old smugglers and highwaymen inns featuring accommodation.

Published: 1st June 2015.

https://www.historic-uk.com/CultureUK/The-Great-British-Pub/