The Pub

An alarming story in the news today. Allegedly pubs in this country are closing at the rate of 52 a week. At that rate there will be none left in a year or two.

The British Pub has changed considerably in my lifetime. I seem to recall that when I was a child, they were generally the province of the male, where adult men would gather in darkened smoky rooms to socialise. Some pubs welcomed women but mostly lone women were treated with suspicion, and in those days, probably for good reason. For kids they were mysterious places where we were most definitely NOT welcome at all.

My childhood memories of pubs were very limited to family days out. Always a coach trip, and always the coach would take longer to get home than it did to get wherever we went. The reason being the frequent stops en route so that the adults could go to a pub. We kids would be left in the bus with a few disapproving women usually, and might be provided with a bottle of vimto and a bag of crisps if we were lucky, but often it was just a case of waiting for the adults to return, smelling of smoke and beer. Pub toilets were always outside and rarely cleaned but we did have access if desperate. Pub food was crisps, pickled eggs and pork pies, and in those days there were no sell by dates or refrigeration units.

Every village had it's pub and they managed to survive without all of the modern advantages. They were even very limited in the times they could open. A couple of hours at lunchtime and from six to ten thirty at night. The village policeman would patrol soon after closing time to make sure that this was properly adhered to. Even so the pub, like the shop and the post office were focal points of village life and even teenagers unable to get served in the pub would congregate in that vicinity.

Now every pub serves food, does not allow smoking, permits the presence of kids and sells a vast range of beverages including tea and coffee, and yet it would appear that many pubs are stuggling to survive. I bought a round of drinks the other night that only weeks ago had cost me nine pounds and yet this week it was over eleven. The price of alcoholic drinks has rocketed and of course the price of the non alcoholic alternatives has shot up too. Food in pubs is no longer a cheap option and the presence of kids does nothing to enhance the experience. For what one pays for five drinks these days, one can, in the supermarket, buy three bottles of wine or several packs of strong lager or cider, and that of course is what people are resorting to. It is cheaper by far to drink anywhere but the pub, and with takeaway kebabs springing up all over like mosques, those on low incomes are going for the alternatives.

Of course there are always the Weatherspoons pubs, that buy their beer in bulk and sell it at vastly reduced priced. These places also do very cheap food and have huge barn-like buildings with no character whatever, but they do allow punters to get drunk quite cheaply and are therefore doing a roaring trade.

Reducing the tax on alcohol would be catastrophic in a land where alcohol related disease and crime are at an all time high, and so the future of the pub seems pretty bleak. Of course there will be those that survive, but for many people they will become no go areas on the basis of cost, Weatherspoons excluded.