please empty your brain below
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I very occasionally go to a public house for a lunch. I am a teetotaller so that is my only use for them.
As so many are closing I wonder how long they will remain a traditional site in towns and villages.
John | 10.11.16 - 7:09 a.m. | #
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In Australia, I only ever go to the pub if I am away from home. There is no point going down to my local. The wowser tax makes the beer prohibitively expensive and the recently renovated bar is full of yuppies and cold chrome, steel and glass. When I say 'beer' above, too, I really mean cold, tasteless bubbly muck - bit like Beck's really. Not real beer.
When visiting the UK I love to go to the pub. In fact, I visit *so I can go to the pub*! REAL ALE, nice and fresh, but not too cold or full of bubbles, lovingly poured into a real pint mug / glass. MMMMMMM! And, compared with what you pay in this colony it's CHEAP, too. Plus, your pubs have atmosphere! They are twee and squee, all olde worlde with oak and flowers in summer and fires in winter! People bring their doggies too. I love that. Even better when the pub has a resident cat. That sort of thing is banned in my puritan colony.
Bloody hell. I'm getting all nostalgic now. Find a local and have a pint for me DG - and not that ghastly German import either. Have a real Northern Bitter or Kentish Mild Ale and be glad that you have not been consigned to the Southern penal colony.
BTW - will Becks be illegal after Brexit?
Antipodean | 10.11.16 - 7:18 a.m. | #
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as with John i go to pubs to eat as much as drink these days. also a lot outside London do bed and breakfast often being the only such place in the village.
and last night i went to the pub to mourn the last day of the world as we once knew it
Peewit | 10.11.16 - 7:24 a.m. | #
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Cheers,DG!! I'll raise a glass to you in the pub tomorrow! Friday afternoons are when I meet up with a small gang of old geezers and another old gal, to save a few pints from going sour. One simply has to do one's bit.
Conversation is available too,sometimes to a high standard,but mostly it can feel like you're in an episode of Last of the Summer Wine. But why not. Cheers again! 🍻🍻
Jo W | 10.11.16 - 7:48 a.m. | #
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Because the government hasn't got the alcohol tax rates correct.
Jon | 10.11.16 - 7:58 a.m. | #
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As ever, a well considered, dare I say it, list ... but one thing occurred to me recently and point 20 reminded me... with all the multitude of new developments in the capital, all these 'villages' sprouting up [ estate agents would have us believe], none, none, plan for a pub at the heart of the community ... but the death knell can't be sound, as neither do they plan for churches...
what do they put at the heart of these developments instead ...
boypathos | 10.11.16 - 8:08 a.m. | #
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But in the pub you are not just paying for the yellow liquid poured from a green bottle into a glass. The price you pay goes towards the staff's wages, the utility bills, the cost of running the hoover round the bar, wiping the windows, sluicing the urinals and paying the rates.
Waterhouse | 10.11.16 - 8:36 a.m. | #
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Blimey more than £5 for not even a pint. It must have been an expensive pub!
As someone who prefers real ale, the bottles from a supermarket never taste as nice as in a pub, so that is definitely a reason to drink in a pub rather than at home.
Jon Combe | 10.11.16 - 8:44 a.m. | #
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Was the serving size the same? Becks irks me by sometimes coming in 275ml bottles - the supermarket ones almost certainly were, but pub was probably selling 330ml bottles, so it's not quite as many times cheaper as it first seems.
On your last point, it's probably worth remembering that pub is short for public house - very much a meeting place.
I have learned the word inglenook today, so thank you.
martin | 10.11.16 - 8:55 a.m. | #
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You nailed it on 20) for me. My living room doesn't come close. And frankly I don't want to spend all my time in it. Now I end up doing so because I have two small children, but if I can get out, I do. Even if it means sitting at the bar by myself reading a book (hey, I'm in my late 30s. I can do that now.)
Yes, the prices are more expensive - certainly a lot more than the homebrewed beer I make - but as Waterhouse mentions, you're paying for so much more (Waterhouse - you also forgot the commercial costs of taking that glass bottle away for recycling ;) ) Prices are also liable to go up in central London thanks to business rate increases. But you'll still be able to find much cheaper establishments (Wetherspoons, Sams Smiths etal), and the experience in a good pub will be just oh so much more.
Andrew Bowden | Homepage | 10.11.16 - 9:13 a.m. | #
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All the above.
But mainly 0)
;-)
David | 10.11.16 - 9:21 a.m. | #
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21. Because the meeting you are attending is making use of the pub as a venue.
22. The wake is being held there.
23. The any other 'social event' - e.g. coming of age party, retirement party, redundancy party, etc etc is being held there.
24. The weather is bad and there is no where else to meet your mate.
25. You need to use the loo but feel guilty for taking advantage of the well stocked bathroom and buy a drink afterwards.
26. You don't know the area and need to get directions, find a place to write an update, sit down etc etc.
27. You're interested in pub interiors and or like the peculiar aroma to be found in pubs.
28. You've an hour to kill before your event elsewhere.
29. You have a bet on with one of your mates that involves 'proof' in the pub.
30. You or someone else has a bit of 'knock-off' to dispose of.
could go on ......
B | 10.11.16 - 9:28 a.m. | #
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As one who worked close to your fabled dwelling, in a stressful job, we would, almost on a daily basis, go 'up the road' to a pub you've mentioned previously, for 'just one', when things had been tricky. Not the most glamorous of locations, but the perfect place to go to put the world to rights and get back into a frame of mind where it wassn't so bad after all. No one was running a social club, but it was at least sufficiently congenial, for the moment. This is all, for me, no longer necessary - retirement has brought shelter from all that stress, so my visits 'up the road' are now much less frequent, and my health, consequently, much more secure.
Brian | 10.11.16 - 9:29 a.m. | #
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As a 50 year old, look around and ask yourself how many people in the pub are young, if the answer is not many, then reason 21 might be 'because I date from the era when it was normal to go to the pub'.
Still anon | 10.11.16 - 9:36 a.m. | #
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There's still a bit of a sense of occasion about going to the pub.
It's neutral territory, stepping outside real everyday existence, where things can be said and we can be slightly different versions of ourselves.
I actually managed to find an English hopped IPA (Acorn Keyworth) yesterday, which made going to the pub for lunch well worthwhile.
Sarah | Homepage | 10.11.16 - 9:38 a.m. | #
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To continue from B's list...
31 - Because you want a bit of time to yourself and you don't live alone.
Chz | 10.11.16 - 9:54 a.m. | #
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Adore pubs (always have) and often travel into London with the sole purpose of a) meeting friends and b) visiting multiple pubs. Content to pay the premium to drink in the best of them, although far too many serve beer that is barely fit to drink.
Last did this on Saturday - in and around Carnaby Street and Soho, using my debit card to pay for each round - I was stunned to note that the most expensive drinks of the day were bought in a nonentity of a pub back here in Hertfordshire!
Frank F | 10.11.16 - 10:01 a.m. | #
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I've nothing against pubs but I rarely go to them now. I think I'm in your categories relating to cost and being a miserable old git. I did the "go to the pub every other night when young" thing. However beer was cheaper then but over 20 pints a week is not a good idea. I don't drink at home either for precisely the reason you cite. Seen it happen at first hand so know the risks all too well. Think I've had an alcoholic drink twice this year.
And to answer Boypathos's question I think the new "centre" of these soulless new developments is either a small supermarket or, more likely, a chain coffee shop. On a rare occasion someone might be able to afford the rent to open an independent cafe. I think coffee shops have become the new "pub" for a lot of people. They're everywhere and often open for longish hours. They offer a "range" of products, the chance to sit and chat etc etc. Still I can apply the same DG categories to coffee shops as I think they are outrageously expensive for what they are and hardly use them. I may use one once a year that's possibly an over estimate.
PC | 10.11.16 - 10:11 a.m. | #
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PC - you might think coffee shops are outrageously expensive, but they are businesses and businesses cost money. It costs money to furbish the place, to buy the stock, to pay the staff, to clean the place, to pay the taxes and business rates, and so on.
Every time I saw someone whine about the costs of of a bowl of cereal at the Cereal Cafe compared to the supermarket, I just wanted to shout "OF COURSE IT'S EXPENSIVE! IT'S A CAFE!"
Any cafe, restaurant, pub, etc will be dearer than what you can do at home because of the overheads. And it's up to us all, as potential customers, to decide whether we think it's worth paying the money.
Plenty will decide it's not. That's their prerogative.
Andrew Bowden | Homepage | 10.11.16 - 10:17 a.m. | #
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I've always hated pubs precisely because I rarely drink alcohol, and the price of soft drinks is so overinflated compared to the cost. At least alcohol is relatively expensive in the first place...
It's the one place I genuinely begrudge spending money.
Kirk | 10.11.16 - 10:33 a.m. | #
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I tend to go to pubs when we've gone out for the day - usually for a pint with a meal. I do think British pubs are the best in the world and we need to preserve them.
Saying that though, the way I see it though, for a pub to be considered a "regular" it needs to be within staggering distance of home. Unfortunately the few around me are pretty dire and as my friends are now scattered to the four corners of the earth the attraction is no longer there.
Cornish Cockney | 10.11.16 - 10:41 a.m. | #
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It's the joy of finding a cracker of a pub and/or striking up a conversation with an interesting person or having a daft conversation with a silly person or simply sitting in a corner and watching life go by.
Fell across a pub opposite Bunhill fields a while back and it was like entering a time capsule. Lovely. Just sat there with the one other old chap in there and smiled at the history leaking out of its walls...
milo bell | 10.11.16 - 10:43 a.m. | #
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@milo bell - was that The Artillery Arms..??
Frank F | 10.11.16 - 12:34 p.m. | #
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Coffee shops outrageously expensive? Perhaps if you just want a cup of warm brown fluid. But if you want to sit out of the wind and the rain, on a comfortable chair, with a table, perhaps a socket to plug in a phone or laptop, "free" wifi, reasonably quiet, perhaps a newspaper to read, then all of those elements need paying for.
Much the same considerations can apply to the buying a glass of a warm brown or cold yellow alcoholic fluid.
Andrew | 10.11.16 - 2:02 p.m. | #
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£5.25 for one bottle of Becks is outrageous. 250ml or 330ml incidentally? Pricing of bottled and canned beverages in hostelries is wildly variable at the moment. In my chosen venue on Friday evening a 250ml bottle of Speckled Hen (real brown beer) was £5 - appalling - a 440ml can of Guinness 'draft' was £4.95 which makes absolutely no sense at all. Yes demand for pubs is waning but many are hastening their downfall for a lack of common sense in these areas.
Sciurus Carolinensis Nemesis | 10.11.16 - 2:49 p.m. | #
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Re overheads: I remember my dad saying 50/60 years ago that the price of a restaurant meal was approximately 4 times the cost of the same ingredients at home. Make that 5 now to allow for VAT and that is still about right. But coffee shops, ridiculous prices. As a rabid anti-smoker for decades I rarely went to pubs in my younger days, now the attraction might conceivably be DG #12, as I am beginning to begrudge nearly £80 a month for the grossly overpaid footballers.
Berkshire Boy | 10.11.16 - 3:48 p.m. | #
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@Berkshire Boy
In the days when I read "Caterer ahd Hotelkeeper" the suggested planning rule for restaurants was to charge 3 times the food cost (wholesale to the restaurant owner).
I was interested because they noted that in France it was 2 times.
Both were long after VAT.
Drinks and coffee started at 100% markup of course.
And if you want a drinkable hot brown then Pret a Manger has filter coffee for 99P (look at the bottom of the menu).
Mike D (in Surrey) | 10.11.16 - 5:55 p.m. | #
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35) Because a friend suggested going to the pub (possibly supposing that you would like that) and you said yes (supposing that the friend really wanted to go).
36) Because you have got into a mindset that the pub is the only place where conversation will flow freely.
Malcolm | 10.11.16 - 10:03 p.m. | #
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In many other countries, the artificial choice between the centre of a community being pub or coffee shop would not exist. There would be a bar, and those wanting beer, those wanting coffee, those wanting a sandwich and those wanting a chat would all be catered for, together
Malcolm | 10.11.16 - 10:07 p.m. | #
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...to drown one's sorrows?
Grumpy Anon | 10.11.16 - 11:55 p.m. | #
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@ A Bowden - to be fair I'm not saying those establishments don't have costs to cover. Of course they do. I'm just saying *I* consider them to be expensive and not particularly value for money. On a similar basis I don't ever buy take aways in place of a regular meal nor do I use fast food places like McDonalds. I will buy a sandwich from a cafe or a supermarket. Clearly millions of people have a different view to me and that's fine.
PC | 11.11.16 - 11:22 a.m. | #
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Pubs are generally ghastly. Town centre pubs particularly so.
Chris P | 11.11.16 - 7:27 p.m. | #
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PC - I am surprised you imply that McDonalds is expensive. The thing that I find it really has going for it is that the prices are generally not out of line of a supermarket meal deal or an inexpensive cafe - they also don't up the prices extortionately when they are in a premium location - station/service station/Olympic Park for example.
Messiah | 12.11.16 - 10:59 p.m. | #
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