An overlong but light-hearted look at the British pub scene.
https://www.cnn.com/travel/british-pubs-rules-etiquette-beer
What surprised me the most was how it was not only OK to take your drink outside, it was almost required. So many people milling about outside the pub drinking and smoking and carousing. Especially the smoking. You need to make sure your hotel isn't too close to such a pub or there will be no rest for you.
phred--I would have loved to read this when it showed on cnn.com this AM, but it is paywalled (as most of can is to me). And still paywalled via your link.
phred, thanks for the link.
In London this past March I envied the groups of younger folks outside the pub opposite my hotel in the evenings. Everyone seemed to be having such a good time, laughing and chatting, lots of handshakes all around for a new arrival. I so wanted to join them.
We've noticed that in London and Glasgow nearly every pub after office hours has a sizeable crowd of young people outside, smoking and having a pint. It's bemusing. We don't see it so much in Edinburgh or elsewhere in the UK.
Smoking appears definitely to have increased since the pandemic. Unfortunate.
We've noticed that in London and Glasgow nearly every pub after office hours has a sizeable crowd of young people outside, smoking and having a pint. It's bemusing. We don't see it so much in Edinburgh or elsewhere in the UK.
You see it a lot in London in those early evening hours - a lot of people who work in London can’t afford to live in the centre of the city. That early after-work drink has become a way of socialising because no one wants to go straight home, because then you’re stuck in a shared house miles from anywhere.
It amuses me when people here talk about going to a pub in London for an evening meal, because in my experience London pubs in the early evening are for drinking. In my drinking days, we went out after work, had a few drinks, realised we needed some food so someone would buy a couple of bags of crisps for the table - splitting the bag to share.
Very common to spill out onto the street because maybe there’s a smoker or two, or the pub is full. I’m not a smoker but I always enjoyed the buzz outside the pub.
You’d stay far longer than you meant because maybe the craic was flowing and suddenly it was last orders and you hadn’t had a meal yet - and would end up getting a curry or kebab late at night.
There seems to be an idea on this forum that pubs are for eating at - that’s true of some, but for a lot of Brits that’s not the primary purpose. I might do a pub lunch at weekends in the country, but in the evenings it’s all about drinking.
A lot of pubs now do have to rely on food sales to keep going and there aren’t many pure drinking pubs left. There’s one at the end of my road that sells no food and I have to say I never go there, preferring the more modern self styled ‘pub and kitchen’ a bit further away.
Unfortunately, young people have picked up smoking in Europe again. In Germany and Austria was surprised at the number of young people smoking.
It's the same in America. I see so many twenty somethings vaping outside. Yuck. I lost two generations of my family to lung cancer from smoking so I'm shocked that it's coming back.
That said, I thought everyone knew you can take your drinks outside Indeed my biggest culture shock was seeing very tipsy/drunk guys in Berlin walking around holding half empty beer bottles at 8 in the morning. The whole no drinking in public is a very American concept and probably stems from Prohibition.
maybe the craic was flowing
What a great phrase! (For the uninitiated, "craic" means good times. And it also makes so, so much more.) Always looking for good craic.
Unfortunately, young people have picked up smoking in Europe again. In Germany and Austria was surprised at the number of young people smoking.
I don’t think the UK can be compared to Germany or Austria in terms of smoking, although I might try to find some figures. Most of the actual smokers I know are 50 plus and it feels quite shocking to me. But vaping is really popular here in Britain.
Apparently young people are starting to smoke more. I think it’s inevitable. Once something almost dies out it has a chance to become cool again, especially when cigarettes are now £15-16 a pack. They’ve almost made them prestige.
Bear in mind that you’re only seeing the fraction of young people who go out drinking. A huge number of younger people do not drink alcohol.
For decades of London travel my usage of pubs is for a late lunch early dinner, a pint and to use the loo.
I travel in the Fall or early winter when the sun sets early ( around 4pm) so by the time the pub gets crowded I’m elsewhere.
And for clarity I’d never book a room anywhere near a pub or bar or outdoor restaurant or garbage bins. I always ask. If I were to find myself in one I’d asked to be moved or book elsewhere. Did it in London decades ago when the hotel room was above the disco.
quoting Golden Girl
There seems to be an idea on this forum that pubs are for eating at - that’s true of some, but for a lot of Brits that’s not the primary purpose.
I find it interesting. As a young boy in the late 1950s and 1960s when I was in England (I grew up on both sides of the Atlantic, long (6 to 9 months) trips one way or the other most years - school was continually catching up with what I had missed, a lot!)
I lived above a Cotswold country pub. My uncle was the Landlord. As a very young teenager (probably wouldn't be allowed now) I helped behind the bar tapping barrels, drawing pints (only 2 kinds of draught beer - mild and bitter, and Bulmers Cider, a very few other beers and stouts in bottles and BabyCham), running the till and making change in old money, etc., but never touching the spirits.
My grandfather pickled the home grown onions and shallots, and eggs from the farm next door. My grandmother washed up (everybody had their own pint or half pint glass or tankard - regulars not happy if you gave them their daily in anything other than THEIR mug.)
My aunt was responsible for the food, as it was. She cut a few sandwiches with maybe 3 fillings, probably egg mayo, ham, or cheese (not ham and cheese), made the Scotch eggs, and that was about it. No other food.
Smoking was not banned yet, but most indoor smoking was pipes. Cigars and cigarettes were often in the garden, completely informally, only a few cigarettes in the Public Bar, never in the Lounge (where ladies could be).
These days the new Landlords (it is still a tied pub) do much more cooking and serving of food, almost always consumed at the tables in the garden.
The old dairy is now houses, the view to the Racecourse blocked now by more houses.
Guess "progress" is inevitable.
Nigel
I lived above a Cotswold country pub...
This is exactly the kind of fantasy many Americans still hope to find in England. I know many scoff when a poster asks for somewhere quaint to visit, but Nigel, you lived it!
thanks jeanm
I didn't mention the thatched roof, the date 1640 in the fireplace, the now blocked up hidden tunnel to the church across the lane, the church at the other end of the tunnel.
Then again I also didn't mention my brother falling in the brook, the frost inside the windows in winter, the winding stairs up to the bedrooms that were steeper than I have seen in the Netherlands which were only about 18 inches wide and half of that was gallon jars of the previously mentioned pickled eggs and pickled onions and shallots....
You take the good with the bad.
Oh, and I mentioned the dairy nextdoor where we got our daily eggs and milk fresh from the cows still warm (couldn't do that now either), but didn't mention that the herd was taken down the lane back and forth to the pasture - and as cows do the road always had a new slippery surface. Good fun in the rain.
So as I said, take the good with the bad.
One of my favorite UK memories from a few years back was wandering by a lane in town and having the all-senses experience of a pub crowd that had spilled outside. "Sweet Caroline" on the speakers, the smell of beer and cigarette smoke, loud laughter, golden hour right before twilight, summer breeze. Ahhhh.
One of my favorite UK memories from a few years back was wandering by a lane in town and having the all-senses experience of a pub crowd that had spilled outside. "Sweet Caroline" on the speakers, the smell of beer and cigarette smoke, loud laughter, golden hour right before twilight, summer breeze. Ahhhh.
Ah, yes. That’s pretty much as English as it gets.
If you’re a real local, you may have your own special mug hanging
behind the bar, possibly crafted from pewter. If so, you’re probably
also in line to have a bronze plaque installed on your favorite
chair/table after you go to that Great Pub in the Sky. You may also be
the pub bore, more of which imminently.
Did Norm and Cliff move to England?
Nigel
-and as cows do the road always had a new slippery surface.
And this is what makes it "authentic".
