Sunday, August 29, 2010
The Future of the British Pub
Last week The Guardian addressed one of the truly vital questions of our time: What is the future of the British pub? As an aficionado of pub life from my time traveling across and living in the UK it's a question near and dear to my heart. Clearly two alarming trends have been taking place. One has been the consolodation of power of chain pubs, ersatz representations of the real thing that lack history, charm, and ambiance. The second trend, perhaps tied to the first, is the death of the traditional pub. This is less a concern in cities like London than it is in villages across the UK (and Ireland as well) where once even the smallest village had one or more pubs where people could while away their time in food and fellowship over a pint.
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4 comments:
How sadly predictable, "it's all Thatcher's fault". (Actually, this is just a first post - will listen in more depth later; I have some opinions on the way that licensing laws have been interpreted).
Ken --
Well, two points:
1) "much of the trouble in the pub industry can be traced back to legislation drawn up by Margaret Thatcher's government that allowed large companies to accumulate too much power" is rather different from "it's all Thatcher's fault."
2) "sad" and "predictable" or not, are the merits of that argument sound? No need for lamentations. It's a simple question: Is it true that Thatcher's policies have led to particular consequences for the pub industry? The evidence seems to indicate as much, as does the timetable. But there are other factors at play, especially in smaller villages where the options have not gone from locally-owned pub to impersonal chain pub, but rather from locally-owned pub to no pub.
dcat
dcat;
1) Yes, I was being a little glib and crotchety, but it seems to me that it's a constant fallback of the kinds of poeple the Guardian ask on these matters to blame the legislation of the Thatcher government; at some point you do have to question why, if these things were so bad, there's been little emphasis to revert legislation backwards?
2) I think in recent times at least, there are other structural problems within society and the legal system that have affected matters greatly. Firstly, with the advent of 24-hour drinking, it has been city centre pubs that get the long licenses (where, of course, drink is cheaper and younger people are more likely to congregate); by contrast, local pubs in residential neighbourhoods have been given less long extensions.
I think, though I can't say for certain, this has had an impact insofar as younger people generally drinking in different establishments, and so the pub as the hub of the community is much less important than it used to be (longer-term demographic shifts away from rural residence probably intensify this in villages). Which, ultimately is hugely regrettable.
Ken --
1) Yeah, I assumed you were recating -- and understandably so some of the time -- to the Guardian leading off with a shot at Thatcher. I like the Guardian generally speaking, but there are some topics on which i don't fine it to be the most reliable interpreter. Of course those might speak to my own ideological blind spots as much as to theirs.
2) The politics of drinking policy can lead us down a million rabbit holes. What is the public interest in regulating drinking and how do those jibe with ideals of the free market? If our goal is to curb "bad drinking," what is the best path to that? Does an 11:00 or midnight closing time facilitate or prevent binge drinking -- there are plausible arguments about both. Is it necessary to have any closing laws? Does this vary from country to country? Should there be national or state laws or should the local prevail?
I also think you're right -- the role of the pub is not always what it has often been, though this can vary -- the pub in London is rather different from the pub in a tiny village in the Midlands where it really might still be the epicenter of social and civic life and where drinking really is only a small part of it, or at least seems like a smaller part.
dcat
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