Public house

A public house, usually known as a pub, is an establishment which serves alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises, usually in a homely setting. Pubs are found in English-speaking countries, particularly in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, and also, to a lesser extent, in the United States.

A pub which offers lodging may be called an inn or hostelry in the UK. In Australia, pubs often bear the name of "hotel", even though many no longer offer lodging (hotels which offer only lodging, without a bar, are generally called "Private Hotels"). Bar service is the norm.

Overview of pubs

In the 1930s the Anglo-French writer Hilaire Belloc penned the following cautionary warning:

When you have lost your inns, drown your empty selves, for you will have lost the last of England!

Public houses are culturally and socially different from places such as cafés, bars, bierkellers and brewpubs. There are approximately 60,000 public houses in the United Kingdom, including one in almost every village. In many places, especially in villages, a pub can be the focal point of the community, playing a similar role to the local church in this respect.

Pubs are social places based on the sale and consumption of alcoholic beverages, and most public houses offer a range of beers, wines, spirits, alcopops and soft drinks. Many pubs are controlled by breweries, so beer is often better value than wines and spirits, whilst soft drinks can be almost as expensive. Beer served in a pub can range from cask ale beer brewed in the time-honoured fashion and served from a hand-pump to pressurised keg beer. The beer lends most pubs a pleasant, memorable aroma. All pubs also have a range of non-alcoholic beverages available. Traditionally the windows of town pubs are of smoked or frosted glass so that the clientele are obscured from the street. In the last twenty years in the UK and other countries there has been a move away from frosted glass towards clear glass, a trend which fits in with brighter internal decors.

The owner, tenant or manager (licensee) of a public house is known as the publican or landlord. Each pub generally has a crowd of regulars, people who drink there regularly. The pub that people visit most often is called their local. In many cases, this will be the pub nearest to their home, but some people choose their local for other reasons: proximity to work, a traditional venue for their friends, the availability of a particular cask ale, non-smoking provision, or maybe a darts team or pool table.

A society with a particular interest in the traditional British beers and the preservation of the 'integrity' of the public house is CAMRA, the Campaign for Real Ale.

Colloquialisms for the public house include boozer, battle cruiser, the local, watering hole, nuclear sub and rub-a-dub-dub (see Cockney rhyming slang).

History

The inhabitants of Great Britain and Ireland have been drinking ale since the Bronze Age, but it was with the arrival of the Romans and the establishment of the Roman road network that the first inns, in which the weary traveller could obtain refreshment, began to appear. By the time the Romans left, the beginnings of the modern pub had been established. They became so commonplace that in 965 King Edgar decreed that there should be no more than one alehouse per village.

The Royal Standard of England, a pub near Beaconsfield, is a present-day survivor that grew from a Saxon alehouse. The Saxon alewife would put a green bush up on a pole to let people know her brew was ready. As well as strong ale, small ale was made to drink instead of water, which was rightly regarded as dirty and unsafe. A traveller in the early Middle Ages could obtain overnight accommodation in monasteries, but later a demand for hostelries grew with the popularity of pilgrimages and travel. The Hostellers of London were granted guild status in 1446 and in 1514 the guild became the Worshipful Company of Innholders.

Traditional English ale was made solely from fermented malt. The practice of adding hops to produce beer was introduced from the Netherlands in the early 15th century. Alehouses would each brew their own distinctive ale, but independent breweries began to appear in the late 17th century. By the end of the century almost all beer was brewed by commercial breweries.

The 18th century saw a huge growth in the number of drinking establishments, primarily due to the introduction of gin. Gin was brought to England by the Dutch after the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and started to become very popular after the government created a market for grain that was unfit to be used in brewing by allowing unlicensed gin production, whilst imposing a heavy duty on all imported spirits. As thousands of gin-shops sprang up all over England, brewers fought back by increasing the number of alehouses. By 1740 the production of gin had increased to six times that of beer and because of its cheapness it became popular with the poor leading to the so-called Gin Craze. Over half of the 15,000 drinking establishments in London were gin-shops. Beer maintained a healthy reputation as it was usually safer to drink ale than water, but the drunkenness and resultant lawlessness created by gin was seen to lead to ruination and degradation of the working classes. The distinction was illustrated by William Hogarth in his engravings Beer Street and Gin Lane. The Gin Act (1736) imposed high taxes on retailers but led to riots in the streets. The prohibitive duty was gradually reduced and finally abolished in 1742. The 1751 Gin Act however was more successful. It forced distillers to sell only to licensed retailers and brought gin-shops under the jurisdiction of local magistrates.

Licensing and records

The Wine and Beerhouse Act 1869 re-introduced the stricter controls of the previous century. The sale of Beers, Wines or Spirits required a valuable license for the premises from the local magistrates. A series of further provisions specifically regulated gaming, drunkenness, prostitution and other undesirable conduct on licenced premises, enforceable by prosecution or more effectively by the landlord under threat of forfeiting his licence. Licences were only granted, transferred or renewed at special Licencing Sessions courts, and were strictly limited to respectable individuals (initially often ex-servicemen or police). Licence conditions varied widely, according to local practice. They would specify permitted hours, which might require Sunday closing, or conversely permit all-night opening near a market. Typically they might require opening throughout the permitted hours, and the provision of food or lavatories. Once obtained, licences were jealously protected by the licencees (always individuals expected to be generally present, not a remote owner or company), and even "Occasional Licences" to serve drinks at temporary premises such as fêtes would usually be granted only to existing licencees. Objections might be made by the police, rival landlords or anyone else on the grounds of infractions such as serving drunks, disorderly or dirty premises, or ignoring permitted hours. However licensing was gradually liberalised after the 1960s, until contested licensing applications became very rare, and the remaining administrative function was transferred to Local Authorities in 2005.

Detailed records were kept on licensing, giving the Public House, its address, owner, licensee and misdemeanours of the licensees for periods often going back for hundreds of years. Many of these records survive and can be viewed, for example, at the London Metropolitan Archives centre.

The Saloon and Public Bar

By the end of the 18th century a new room in the pub was established: the Saloon. Beer establishments had always provided entertainment of some sort—singing, gaming or a sport. Balls Pond Road in Islington was named after an establishment run by Mr Ball that had a pond out the back filled with ducks, where drinkers could, for a certain fee, go out and take their chance at shooting the fowl. More common, however, was a card room or a billiard room. The Saloon was a room where for an admission fee or a higher price at the bar, singing, dancing, drama or comedy was performed. From this came the popular Music Hall form of entertainment—a show consisting of a variety of acts. A most famous London Saloon was the Grecian Saloon in The Eagle, City Road, which is still famous these days because of an English nursery rhyme: "Up and down the City Road / In and out The Eagle / That's the way the money goes / Pop goes the weasel.". The implication being that, having frequented The Eagle public house, the customer spent all his money, and thus needed to 'pawn' his 'weasel' to get some more. The exact definition of the 'weasel' is unclear but the two most likely definitions are: that a weasel is a flat iron used for finishing clothing; or that 'weasel' is cockney rhyming slang for a coat (weasel and stoat).

A few pubs have stage performances, such as serious drama, stand-up comedians, a musical band or striptease; the highly contentious juke box or "muzak" has otherwise replaced the musical tradition of a piano and singing.

By the 20th century, the saloon had settled into a middle class room—carpets on the floor, cushions on the seats, and a penny or two on the prices, while the public bar had remained working class—bare boards, sometimes with sawdust to absorb the spitting, hard seats, and cheap beer. The public bars gradually improved until sometimes almost the only difference was in the prices, so that customers could choose between economy and exclusivity (or youth and age, or a juke box or dartboard). During the blurring of the class divisions in the 1960s and 70s, the distinction between the saloon and the public bar was seen as archaic, and was abolished, usually by the removal of the dividing wall or partition itself. While the names of Saloon and Public Bar may still be seen on the doors of pubs, once inside the prices and the standard of decoration are the same throughout the premises, and it often comprises one large room. However, the issues of smoking and eating encourage some pubs to maintain distinct rooms or areas, especially where the building requires it, and in a few pubs there still remain rooms or seats which by local custom "belong" to particular customers.

Opening hours and regulation

From the middle of the 19th century restrictions were placed on the opening hours of licensed premises in the UK. These culminated in the Defence of the Realm Act of August 1914, which along with the introduction of rationing, and the censorship of the press also restricted the opening hours of public houses to 12noon–2.30pm and 6.30pm–9.30pm. Opening for the full licensed hours was compulsory, and closing time was equally firmly enforced by the police; a landlord might lose his licence for infractions. During the twentieth century, both the licensing laws and enforcement were progressively relaxed, and there were differences between parishes; in the 1960s, at closing time in Kensington at 10.30pm, drinkers would rush over the parish boundary to be in good time for "Last Orders" in Knightsbridge before 11pm! Some Scots and Welsh parishes remained officially "dry" on Sundays (although often this merely required knocking at the back door of the pub!). However, closing times were increasingly disregarded in the country pubs. In England and Wales by 2000 pubs could legally open from 11am (12 noon on Sundays) through to 11pm (10.30pm on Sundays). That year was also the first to allow continuous opening for 36 hours from 11am on New Year's Eve to 11pm on New Year's Day. In addition, many cities had by-laws to allow some pubs to extend opening hours to midnight or 1am, whilst nightclubs had long been granted late licences to serve alcohol into the morning.

Scotland's and Northern Ireland's licensing laws have long been more flexible, allowing local authorities to set pub opening and closing times. In Scotland, this stemmed out of a late repeal of the wartime licensing laws, which stayed in force until 1976.

The Licensing Act 2003, which came into force on November 24, 2005, aimed to consolidate the many laws into a single act. This now allows pubs in England and Wales to apply to the local authority for opening hours of their choice. This has proved controversial, with supporters arguing that it will end the concentration of violence around half past 11, when people must leave the pub, making policing easier. Critics have claimed that these laws will lead to '24-hour drinking'. By the day before the law came into force, 60,326 establishments had applied for longer hours, and 1,121 had applied for a licence to sell alcohol 24 hours a day ^*. However, many argue that few of these establishments will be constantly open.

Pub games and sports

Numerous traditional games are played in pubs, ranging from the well-known darts and bar billiards, to the more obscure Aunt Sally, nine men's morris and ringing the bull. Betting is legally limited to certain games such as cribbage or dominoes, but these are now rarely seen. In recent decades the game of pool (both the British and American versions) has increased in popularity.

Increasingly, more modern games such as video games and slot machines are provided. Many pubs also hold special events, from tournaments of the aforementioned games to karaoke nights to pub quizzes. Some play pop music, or show football and rugby on big screen televisions. Despite the wide range of distractions now available in pubs, doing nothing other than drinking remains perfectly acceptable.

Pub food

Traditionally pubs in Britain were drinking establishments and little emphasis was placed on the serving of food, usually called 'bar snacks'. The usual fare consisted of specialised English snack food such as pork scratchings, pickled eggs, along with crisps and peanuts—salted snacks sold or given away to increase customers' thirst. If a pub served meals they were usually basic dishes such as a ploughman's lunch. Since the breathalyser laws, food has now become much more important as part of a pub's trade and today most pubs serve lunches and dinners (colloquially this is known as pub grub, or in Australia, counter meal or simply countery) in addition to snacks consumed at the bar. Some pubs serve excellent meals which can rival a good restaurant's and going for a 'pub lunch' can be a real treat. Certain pubs with a focus on quality food have come to be known as gastropubs.

Pub signs

In 1393 King Richard II compelled landlords to erect signs outside their premises. The legislation stated "Whosoever shall brew ale in the town with intention of selling it must hang out a sign, otherwise he shall forfeit his ale." This was in order make them easily visible to passing inspectors of the quality of the ale they provided (during this period, water was not always good to drink and ale was the usual replacement).

Another important factor was that during the Middle Ages a large percentage of the population would have been illiterate and so pictures were more useful than words as a means of identifying a public house. For this reason there was often no reason to write the establishment's name on the sign and inns opened without a formal written name—the name being derived later from the illustration on the public house's sign. In this sense, a pub sign can be thought of as an early example of visual branding.

The very earliest signs were often not painted but consisted, for example, of paraphernalia connected with the brewing process such as bunches of hops or brewing implements, which were suspended above the door of the public house. In some cases local nicknames, farming terms and puns were also used. Local events were also often commemorated in pub signs.

Simple natural or religious symbols such as the 'The Sun', 'The Star' and 'The Cross' were also incorporated into pub signs, sometimes being adapted to incorporate elements of the heraldry (e.g. the coat of arms) of the local lords who owned the lands upon which the public house stood.

Other favourite subjects which lended themselves to visual depiction included the name of great battles (e.g. Trafalgar), explorers, local notables, discoveries, sporting heroes and members of the royal family. Some pub signs are in the form of a pictorial pun or rebus. For example, a pub in Crowborough, UK called The Crow and Gate has an image of a crow with gates as wings.

In the modern era most British pubs still have highly decorated signs hanging over their doors, and these retain their original function of enabling the rapid identification of the public house—a memorable and prominently located pub sign is still an important means of picking up passing trade. Today's pub signs almost aways bear the name of the pub, both in words and in pictorial representation.

Pub names

Main article: Pub names

Pubs often have traditional names. Here is a list of categories:

relating to its location: The Three Arrows, The Cross, The Railway, The Church
reflecting local trades: The Mason's Arms, The Foresters, The Square and Compass
ironic descriptions of the pub itself: the smallest pub in Britain is called The Nutshell
local sporting activities: The Cricketers, The Fox and Hounds, The Fighting Cocks
a noted individual: The Marquis of Granby, The Lord Nelson, The Emma Hamilton
an historic event: The Trafalgar, The Royal Oak
alluding amusingly to everyday phrases: The Nowhere Inn Particular, The Dewdrop Inn, The Drift Inn (known locally as the "stagger oot")
with a royal or aristocratic association: The Royal Standard, The King's Arms, The King's Head, The Queen Victoria, The Duke of Cambridge,The Anglesea Arms
with the names of two objects which may or may not be complementary: The George and Dragon, The Goat and Compasses, The Rose and Crown, The Dog and Handgun, The Elephant and Castle, The Crow and Gate, The Rummer and Grapes.
The surname of its landlord, particularly in Ireland: O'Neill's, Tí hAnraí (Henry's house).
with names of tools or products of trades: The Harrow, The Propeller, The Wheatsheaf
with names of items, particularly animals, that may be part of a coat of arms (heraldic charges): The Red Lion, The Unicorn, The White Bear,
with reference to history of the local area, for example The Strugglers in Lincoln refers to how people being publicly executed by hanging would struggle for air. Ironically the famous executioner Albert Pierrepoint was landlord of the Help the Poor Struggler at Hollinwood, near Oldham, for several years after WW2, and had to hang one of his own regulars, James Corbitt. Also Ye olde Trip to Jerusalem, purportedly the oldest public house in England (Nottingham, 1189), refers to its role as a resting place for the knights of Richard I on their way to the third crusade.

John Manners, Marquess of Granby (son of John Manners, 3rd Duke of Rutland) was a general in the 18th century. He showed a great concern for the welfare of his men upon their retirement and provided funds for many to establish taverns, which were subsequently named after him.

Many names for pubs that appear nonsensical may have come from corruptions of older names or phrases, often producing a visual image to signify the pub. For example, the name The Goat and Compasses is apparently a corrupted version of the phrase "God encompasseth us". These images had particular importance for identifying a pub on signs and other media before literacy became widespread. Another example of a mistaken pub name is the Oyster Reach pub in Ipswich, England. This pub spent several decades being called the Ostrich, before historians informed the owners of the original name. More possible but uncorroborated corruptions include "The Bag o'nails" (Bacchanals), "Elephant and Castle", (Infanta de Castile) and "The Bull and Mouth", which purportedly celebrates the victory of Henry VIII at "Boulougne Mouth" or Harbour. While these corruptions are amusing there are usually more substantiated explanations available.

Tied houses, free houses and pub chains

Since the development of the large London porter breweries in the 18th century, the trend has been for the majority of pubs to become tied houses, owned or controlled by breweries. Most such breweries, such as the regional breweries Shepherd Neame in Kent and Youngs in London, control hundreds of pubs in a particular region of the UK, whilst a few, such as Greene King, are spread nationally. The landlord of a tied pub may be an employee of the brewery—in which case he would be a manager of a managed house, or a self-employed tenant who has entered into a lease agreement with a brewery, a condition of which is the legal obligation (trade tie) only to purchase that brewery's beer. This tied agreement provides tenants with trade premises at a below market rent providing people with a low-cost entry into self-employment. The beer selection is mainly limited to beers brewed by that particular company. A Supply of Beer law, passed in 1989, was aimed at getting tied houses to offer at least one alternative beer, known as a guest beer, from another brewery.This law has now been repealed but while in force it has dramatically altered the whole industry and it is hard to see how the consumer has actually benefited from this change.

A free house is a pub that is free of the control of any one particular brewery. A free house usually stocks a selection of cask ales, but it may also sell only keg beer. A notice that a pub is a free house gives no indication of quality, range or type of beer served. There are very few truly "free" houses as most have to have a financial arrangement with a brewer, in order to fund the purchase of the pub.

In recent years, a number of pub chains and pub companies (PubCos), such as Wetherspoons and Eerie, have sprung up in the UK. A PubCo is a company involved in the retailing but not the manufacture of beverages, while a pub chain may be run either by a PubCo or by a brewery. What they have in common is that pubs within a chain will have features in common, such as fittings, promotions, ambiance and range of food and drink on offer. A pub chain will position itself in the marketplace for a target audience. One company may run several pub chains aimed at different segments of the market. Pub chains are successful, though some people object that they do not reflect local history and customs. Pubs for use in a chain are bought and sold in large units, often from regional breweries which are then closed down. Newly acquired pubs are often renamed by the new owners, and many people resent the loss of traditional names, especially if their favourite regional beer disappears at the same time.

Pubs in British popular culture

Inns and taverns feature throughout English literature and poetry, from Chaucer onwards. All the major soap operas on British television feature a pub, with their 'pub' becoming a household name. The Rovers Return is the pub on Coronation Street, the British 'soap' broadcast on ITV. The Queen Vic (short for the Queen Victoria) is the pub on EastEnders, the major 'soap' on BBC One, while The Bull in The Archers and the Woolpack on Emmerdale are also central meeting points. The sets of each of the three major television soap operas have been visited by royalty, including Queen Elizabeth II. The centrepiece of each visit was a trip into the Rovers, the Vic or the Woolpack to be offered a drink.

Much of the plotline in British film Shaun of the Dead involves the characters trying to reach their local public house, The Winchester, to escape a zombie invasion. Shaun (Simon Pegg) and Ed (Nick Frost) advocate the pub as the perfect location to wait for help because it is safe, familiar, and they can have a drink and smoke.

British comedian Al Murray's best-known character is a comic bigot, The Pub Landlord.

Teetotal recovering alcoholic, US president George W. Bush fulfilled his ambition of visiting a 'genuine English pub' during his November 2003 State Visit to the UK when he had lunch and a pint of non-alcoholic lager with British Prime Minister Tony Blair at the Dun Cow pub in Sedgefield, County Durham.

Pub music

While many pubs now play piped pop music, the Pub has historically been a popular venue for live song. See:

The pub has also been celebrated in popular music. Examples are "Hurry Up Harry" by the 1970s punk rock act Sham 69, the chorus of which was the chant "We're going down the pub" repeated several times. Another such song is "Two Pints Of Lager and a Packet of Crisps Please!" by UK punk band Splodgenessabounds.

As a reaction against piped music, the Quiet Pub Guide was written, telling its readers where to go to avoid piped music.

Theme pubs

Pubs that to cater for a niche audience, such as sports fans or Star Trek fans or people of certain nationalities are known as theme pubs. Examples of theme pubs include sports bars, rock pubs, biker pubs, goth pubs, strip pubs and Irish pubs (see below).

Irish public houses

Superficially there is little difference between an Irish pub and its English counterpart. However, closer scrutiny will reveal some differences. There is more live music in an Irish pub, and a customer is more likely to entertain the assembly with a song (as opposed to karaoke). The atmosphere in such places is called "crack" or "craic" (a word meaning "fun"). Very few Irish pubs have gambling machines or jukeboxes, which are common elsewhere, but many have televisions. In Ireland pubs usually bear the name of the current or a previous owner, e.g. Murphy's or O'Connor's. Famous pubs in Dublin include O'Donoghue's Pub, an Irish music pub in Merrion Row frequented by American tourists, Doheny & Nesbitt, where politicians, journalists and writers drink together, the Horse Shoe Bar in the Shelbourne Hotel, where journalists like Eamon Dunphy are regular drinkers; the Brazen Head, which bills itself as Ireland's oldest pub; and The George, Dublin's largest gay pub. Some pubs are named after famous streets such Sober Lane in Cork which is named after Father Matthew's Hall of Abstinence. Individual pubs are also associated with famous Irish writers and poets such as Patrick Kavanagh, Brendan Behan and James Joyce. Famous pubs in Belfast include The National Trust's Crown Liquor Saloon, and the city's oldest bar, McHugh's. Outside Belfast, pubs such as the House of McDonnell in Ballycastle and Grace Neil's in Donaghadee are representative of the traditional country pub.

'Irish Pubs' have been opened throughout the world, particularly in the 1980s and 1990s, from New York to Frankfurt, Johannesburg to Beijing. Main drinks consumed in Irish pubs include stout such as Guinness, or ales such as Smithwicks and Kilkenny, lagers such as Budweiser, Heineken, Carlsberg and Harp and other spirits like whiskey and Baileys. Alcopops are also becoming popular with the youth market (particularly women), many of whom no longer drink beverages such as Guinness. Cider is also a drink which is consumed much in the pubs in Ireland with Bulmers (sold as "Magners" outside of the Republic of Ireland to distinguish it from the internationally recognized Hereford cider-makers, H.P. Bulmer and Company, with which it shares a common heritage) being the leading brand. Non-alcoholic drinks are also available. The smoking ban in the Republic has noticeably changed the Irish pub experience; many pubs now offer enclosed and often heated outdoor smoking areas.

The vast majority of pubs in Ireland are independently owned and licensed, or owned by a chain who do not have any brewery involvement, generally meaning that nearly every pub sells a similar but extensive range of products. Some microbreweries operate their own pubs or chains of pubs, where the range is more limited, with only their own products and a few others.

Compare with

Bar
Biergarten (aka Beer garden)
café
Coffeehouse
Inn
Izakaya
Kopi tiam, coffee shop
Restaurant
Tavern
Beer hall, a German pub

References

Beer and Britannia: An Inebriated History of Britain by Peter Haydon (2001, Sutton)
Beer: The Story of the Pint by Martyn Cornell (2003, Headline)
The English Pub by Michael Jackson (1976, Harper & Row).

External links

General Information

Passport to the Pub — a guide to British pub etiquette.
A Brief History of the British Pub
History of London Pubs
Hospitality Forum UK a publican / pubco forum

National online pub guides

There are any number of online guides to British public houses, varying from commercial sites to non-commercial. They offer different functions and facilities, and may be useful for finding information on public houses which do not merit an article of their own on Wikipedia. Descriptions below have usually been supplied by the sites themselves, and so Wikipedia cannot verify their accuracy.

Wikipubs.org — A wiki of pubs and clubs from around the globe.
PubsQuiz.co.uk — A large online pub directory with ratings and customer reviews and feedback.
Cyberboozer — Free-to-use UK pub directory with some international pubs including full details, photographs, maps, descriptions and features of each subscribing pub.
PubUtopia.com — A community driven UK pubs guide, with ratings and reviews by real customers
BeerInTheEvening.com — A UK pub listings site featuring maps, pub search, pub ratings, and reviews
UKcider wiki — A wiki guide to over 630 UK pubs that serve real cider.
Barcrawl.co.uk — A pub crawl map creator and pub review site for major UK cities.

Local online pub guides

Bristol — A supposedly national guide, but comprehensive in the Bristol area.
Essex — A genealogical record of all 1500 Essex public houses for the last 200 years; including an amazing array of photographs and pictures of these establishments.
London (1) — A genealogical record of over 4500 London public houses for the last 200 years including census records, petty sessions records and personal family histories.
London (2) — Traditional and historic London pubs
Southampton — A website about the pubs of Southampton, UK

Drinking establishments | Public houses in the United Kingdom | Types of restaurants | British cultural icons

Pub | Pub | Pub (lieu) | Pub | パブ | Pub | Pub | Pub

Gourt Home::Gourt :: Public house