Are Brits Losing Their Pub-Going Habit?
Low Supermarket Beer Prices Threaten An Ancient Tradition
Beer drinking is still a top recreational activity almost everywhere but where it is supposed to be - the English pub. Escalating costs and non-smoking laws are driving drinkers away from their locals. "I used to go two or three times a week after work but now I just stay at home and go once every now and then, " Chris Hanson, a London carpenter, told Jane Wardell of the Associated Press, " I do more drinking at home now than at pubs. They're more for special occasions since it's becoming so expensive." This is a crying shame because pubs are meeting, as much as drinking, places and have been in existence since the 14th century. In fact, the English pub concept is one of the country's most successful exports. In Canada, for instance they are pumping out pints like there is no tomorrow.
Publicans are Turning in Their Leases
Mostly, in the United Kingdom, a pub pint costs two pounds and 58 pence (five dollars) but prices can edge higher in fashionable watering holes. At the supermarket it only costs 24 pence. It's easy to see why sales at the country's 58,000 public houses have slumped almost as far as they did during the Depression and why many publicans are turning in their leases. It's a shame for business as well as social reasons because publicans were, historically, the country's original entrepreneurs. However, they cannot compete with cheap supermarket alcohol and grumble they can make more money running wine bars or opening cafes. (cnn.com)
14,000 Pubs Closed in 2007
In 2008, the British Beer and Pub Association, in its quarterly Beer Barometer Report, stated that pub managers were pulling around 14 million pints a day, 1.6 million fewer than the previous year and seven million fewer than at the height of the market in 1979. The Campaign for Real Ale, a consumer group, said that more than 1,400 pubs closed in 2007 and maintains that more than half of the country's villages are dry for the first time since the 1066 Norman Conquest. (In Ireland and Australia rural pubs are dying away because of new drinking and driving laws.)
When a pub closes it isn't necessarily pulled down but, like the glorious Victorian relic on London's smart King's Road, may be turned into offices. Where once raucous conviviality reigned computers hum. It doesn't feel right.
The Great Pub Tradition
Oddly enough, the great pub tradition is alive and well wherever there are tourists. In Earls Court, honeycombed with inexpensive hotels, two great pubs dominate the street across from the Underground station. In Knightsbridge, the land of Harrods, they thrive as well. It makes sense to have a pint after a bout of serious shopping.
Expatriate Brits like 'Man of Mystery' on the Toronto Star website mourn the passing of the pub as a sign their youth slipping away. "I grew up in Leeds," he writes, " and spent most of my youth in pubs, socializing of course! It's sad to see them losing popularity. For it was in pubs where I had my first underage drink (legal drinking age:16 then, 18 now), picked up my first true girlfriend, talked soccer, met my friends for a friendly pint to discuss where to go tonight. In fact, it was a coming of age place, which bridged the years from childhood to adulthood. Cheers! Here's to the good old days!"
Cutting Beer Taxes
Pub advocates believe these often musty darkish spaces provide safe places to drink and are a valuable part of the UK culture. You have to wish them well as they lobby the government to stop their decline by cutting beer taxes. Unfortunately, this doesn't seem very likely. Perhaps, their aims to change planning laws to prevent pub demolitions stand a better chance of succeeding. Only time will tell. Hopefully it will not be "last orders" all around.
Nell of Old Drury Pub
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