The Architecture of London Pubs (1966)
thelondonmagazine.org
thelondonmagazine.org
If you want to see the kind of old layout he’s talking about, almost any Sam Smith pub in London will do - they pride themselves on keeping it traditional - with the best and most striking example probably being the Princess Louise near Holborn. Just don’t expect any beer names you recognise - it’s a brewery pub that only sells stuff made by Sam Smiths (the beer), or branded Sam Smiths (the spirits, the snacks…)
Most of the others still exist, but I think have been refurbished quite extensively and not in a way he’d like.
However, there is some hope. Newer bars are opening that are trying to tap into a less sports-focused vibe. Some focusing on food, some on entertainment, quite a few on a wider range of more unusual beers (the “Tap” chain near train stations and just down the road from Farringdon for example).
Of course the dominant player in the mega pub “hall” space is Wetherspoons. Caverns - low-ceilinged cathedrals almost - to cheap beer and Brexit politics. They’re cheap, and so attract clientele who are price sensitive. That leaves more room in all the others for those of us who value something else, I guess.
The pub trade in the U.K. though is in trouble. It’s interesting that Europe’s largest consumer lobby group is based in the U.K.: CAMRA. It’s most interesting that the CAMpaign for Real Ale, started to protect traditionally brewed cask ale from being obliterated by the sorts of breweries that thought beer should be tankered like petrol, has had to change it’s target.
CAMRA basically thinks the war for Real Ale has been won. The rise of microbreweries has meant a plentiful supply of good quality beer is secure. But the pub is not. So now it’s become a bit more CAMPUB, and campaigns to save the business of public houses itself, the traditional bar games (skittles or bar billiards, anyone?), and the communities that sit in them.
The architecture is important, the interior should be considered, the screens have a place in some - but not all - pubs.
But it’s the people that matter, and at the moment the industry is in a mess.
It’s remarkable so many pubs in this article still exist. I don’t think many of them will survive another 60 years, perhaps not even another 10.
Enjoy them while you can.
Some of those pubs local to me, that have been purchased and gutted by smaller boutique brewery chains, have been turned into something indistinguishable from a coffee shop - the dangling light bulbs, brickwork, copper pipes. Coincidentally, I'm off to my local #1 CAMRA pub later, and it is much like the article describes. A typical pub. Dark wood, central bar, low ceilings, two bars (saloon and public), darts, and one tv screen. And it will be full by mid-afternoon through to the end of the day, which is unusual for pubs now.
It just seems like the main problem for pubs, and in fact, most of British industry, is costs, and that seems to be the exorbitant cost of electricity at the moment.
In my forties, and I feel that my generation was the last to enjoy a particular pub experience which is now a rapidly receding memory.
There have been consistent and regular crackdowns on underage drinking for well over a century - I don't recall a particularly large crackdown in recent years, but the licensing has changed: the Police now have more leverage over whether a publican and their property should keep trading than they did before, and that's meant a lot of idiot landlords who didn't give a damn about the social problems their idiocy caused have been forced out of the industry. Those who run a tighter ship stay in business.
By far the biggest shift seems to me, generational attitudes to drinking. When I was in my early 20s, I was in the pub pretty much every night (and many lunchtimes), and I wasn't alone, and was drinking with colleagues and friends who were the same age all the way up to retirement age and beyond.
The people I work with today in their early 20s might go out twice a month, and even then might only have 2-3 drinks all night. They're more likely to go to the gym in the evening, or to head home and watch Netflix or read their Kindle than to go to the pub.
It's interesting that low alcohol drinks are the biggest growth sector, and I've seen 0% beer on draught a little more in recent months. It might seriously help the sector if we just accept getting sloshed every night isn't good for people, people are realising it, and that you need to cater for that.
I don’t know what the problem is, but I have a feeling that it’s slightly more convoluted and part of a broader generational changes, as you noticed yourself.
Isn't it the case that the "pub scene" is healthy - revenues and number of pub employees hasn't decayed significantly, but the number of pubs has. A big part of that is people preferring the larger pubs - going to Wetherspoons for a cheaper pint from a wide range of beers (perhaps with food and sports) than a cosy local that is more expensive and has a limited range.
Unfortunately I can't see CAMRA being able to do much about the economics of a small traditional pub vs the current rental or sale value of the building its in.
> Our pubs are havens from the digital world – there are no TVs or background music. The use of mobile phones, laptops and other tech is not allowed in our pubs.
Good Times! And of course, no screens and no-one had phones (except in the financial centre and those came with an external battery)
Contrary to your experience, I’m pretty sure that most pubs are not sports pubs in London
I'm back visiting for the first extended period of time in a decade, and the bifurcation of the drinking/eating sector is striking. So many new fancy, up-market places with food, craft beer and eye-watering prices; so many shuttered old-school pubs.
It says a lot about where we are as a country.
When I moved back from London to the US (where I’ve spent 90% of my life) I was so much more distracted by the screens than I had ever been before.
You don’t have to go far precisely because your local craft beer haunt, gastropub, sports bar and boozer all serve different clientele.
This is very consistent with there being a steady decline. (Likewise, some mock the perennial complaint that "people don't work as hard as they use to", but in fact hours worked per week has been steadily falling for 150 years.)
> You don’t have to go far precisely because your local craft beer haunt, gastropub, sports bar and boozer all serve different clientele.
I don't know what this is supposed to mean. If a country's is dominated by a certain establishment type I like, and then that type loses lots of market share to different types, I am worse off.
*I found a pub called the Ranelagh, but it’s not in Pimlico, so I assume it’s a different one. It was the one he described as “really terrible,” so no big loss, I suppose.
Addendum: the other interesting thing I noticed was the ones he derided as having been “modernized” in the 1960s were also newly renovated today, with airy, Scandinavian, 2020s aesthetics. Presumably because unlike the traditional pubs, the 60s style became dated pretty quickly.
1. I think all the pubs he mentions have gone.
2. He was born and raised in Chelsea. That’s pretty rare now - Londonnhas undergone a paroxysm of middle class selling up to wealthy (foreign) investors and I would be amazed if any architects today could be born and raised there.
3. I love the detail of the balance bars on the pub lanterns. They are all gone because an electric bulb can operate even when swinging - but a candle or gas just need to remain upright - wow.
4. Cars - cars are hardly mentioned because this was 1966 and you could drink and drive, you can park anywhere because most people did not have / need a car
5. Men not families - again still the sixties
6. The rise of food and Gastropubs - it’s rare a pub can survive on drinking alone and being part of the lunchtime food trade is almost as profitable as evening drinking
Our “third spaces” do matter and reflect on us in interesting ways - going to come back to this article :-)
The food thing has always been the case, it’s just that in the past you could make a bit of stew or have some pies in a warmer at the end of the bar, and you could sell them for a reasonable price, and make more profit than you would on same spend on beer (alcohol duty has been around a long time), but now, needs have changed.
That’s come from two directions. First, those pie warmers and stew pots would struggle with modern health and safety rules in relation to food, and compliance with the regs costs more money so you need more expensive product.
Secondly, consumer demand. A lot of central pubs now are dealing with far more tourists than were around in the 1960s as a consequence of cheaper air travel and changing drinking habits of local resident populations. Those two groups mean pubs have had to move to sit down meals, and at a near-restaurant price point. A few go a little under that level (Greene King and Fuller’s for example, they seem to do very well on food at a non-gastro price point), but they always knew food made more money than beer.
I think it interesting that Sam Smith pubs segregate the food. You can’t just order food to your table - you have to go to the dining room. This means intent has to be decided on as you walk in. I like it a bit, but actually, I’d prefer the Fullers experience more, in that if I have a couple of pints and then want to order a battered whitebait with a jenga of chips and some crushed peas, I can do that. :)
Looking at say the 30s to the 60s pubs were a mostly male preserve, and the vast majority of the spenders.
As society evened up its finances a little, women coukd choose and that choice was fairly obviously away from male dominated drinking establishments - over time of course.
Anyway the shift to more geneder equality has had HVD impacts across the board - weakening trades unions, holding down wages etc
I think I am wondering off the point but I reckon there is a six part tV series in “chnaging britain in a dozen pubs”
So was this the start of the great decline in the quality of brewing in the UK during the 70's that led to CAMRA and eventually to the microbrewery renaissance we had in the late 90's to 00's?
Most real ale in Britain was brewed in traditional breweries that had been going for a century or more that had either escaped being rolled into one of the majors or revived one of the old breweries abandoned by them, like Black Sheep in the old Lightfoot's Brewery.
By contrast the UK microbreweries often seemed more influenced by the US craft beer style which developed from home brewing since their traditional breweries were all shut down during prohibition.
Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose
Many of the described style of pubs are alive and well, often in the form of a Sam Smith’s.
[snugs and gardens with plane trees and playground are still common in my area; they occur every 3 km or so]
EDIT: looks like "The Sloaney Pony" might have a garden? no, I think I'd call that a terrace.
My parents drank around Shepherd's Bush in the 50s and 60s and "the goons" used to refine their schtik in the pub. Fun times!
Around the corner is the Hercules Pillars which has been substantially refurbished, but still very comfortable and has some separation going on.
Most of the pubs around Bloomsbury have gone though. There are a few, but hard to keep it all going in an area where a lot of the housing lies empty - just owned by foreign investors, who are using it as a store of value they hope will appreciate faster than other asset classes.
It's such an interesting look into these slices of life, both current and former, that are so unlike my own experiences.
(No affiliation, I just enjoy the channel)
https://youtu.be/The Red Lion & Pineapple?si=RJXNiaY5xe5pOtzx