First, it was London Bridge that was sold to unsuspecting, dolt businessmen in Lake Havasu City, Arizona who thought they were buying Tower Bridge. Later, British Telecom, during their privatisation, began selling off the ubiquitous British red telephone boxes before someone realized that they might be culturally significant. Today, London’s black cab is being manufactured in Shanghai. And now…the greatest horror of all… pubs are closing at an alarming rate in England, Scotland and Ireland.
Public houses or pubs, were the hub of village life in the United Kingdom for centuries. In many respects, they helped to define British life. Families and friends gathered in pubs to celebrate life, laugh, commiserate, eat and mostly, to drink ale. The family dog could always be found in front of the pub’s well-used fireplace. This way of life, an important aspect of British culture, is on the way out. Today, 35 pubs a week close across England. Over a 1000 English villages are now without pubs where at one time, those villages had 2, 3 and sometimes 4 pubs. There are projections that in Scotland, 12% of its pubs will shutter in 2009. Ireland has closed 1500 pubs since 2001. On top of all of this, the pub closures are costing thousands of jobs.
There are many reasons for this pandemic but the biggest reason of all is pure economics. If you read my fellow blogger, Katie from Long Aye-Lander, she wrote a post yesterday about the cost of beer in the supermarkets versus the price in a pub. As Katie points out, you can buy a can of Skol lager for 23p or less than 39 cents in the supermarket. Admittedly, Skol isn’t fantastic but compare 23p/39 cents to £3/$5.70 for a pint in a pub. Her Majesty’s tax collectors add approximately 30% to the price of a pint in a pub dependent upon the percentage of alcohol in the beer.
The government has made a well meaning move to focus on health throughout the U.K. but combined with pub economics and the smoking ban, pubs are now in more trouble than Tom Cruise’s acting career. The government has come to realise that with every action there is a reaction and now they have taken up the cause for the pubs. Can it be long before all hell breaks loose? Where will I get my McEwans 80/?
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Damn. I’m gonna hafta get over there and do my best to support pubdom in Britain, it seems. It’s a dirty, rotten job, but somebody’s got to do it.
Oh, and Mike, I know I have an audience. I’m 6000 words into the first chapter and I have no idea how to present it so it readable. How do you take paragraphs out of the middle of a book and present them in such a manner that any kind of continuity is established? How would you encourage a ‘new’ reader to jump in and catch up if what they’re seeing is so disjointed? If there’s no point of reference to make it interesting enough to go back and catch up? I’m thinking may I should publish great long chapters at a time. But that would make them rather infrequent.
lceels last blog post..But I have an excuse …
I just read an article about this too. It’s kind of sad, because in many towns the pub is the centre of the community – not just a place to drink, but a place to socialise, get a meal, see a band. Getting drunk on supermarket lager in your house isn’t quite the same.
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You’re right, public houses are a huge defining part of British culture, I was surprised by the lack of pubs when I came to the States. “Bar & Grill” just doesn’t seem to cut it, does it? When my step-dad lived in Glasgow, he’d give directions to people (strangers or not) by which pub is was near and which to look out for before you spotted the next one. It’s true, if someone were to ask me where a shop was, I’d usually say it was by such-and-such pub or other big landmark building. It’s sad.
Siobhans last blog post..Word of the Week
Very sad. They’re a real feature of life, part of community life, and often in historic beautiful buildings.
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Was it the King’s Head pub near the office in London? My head hurts just thinking about it…
Don’t wait too long, Lou. They are going quickly.
Katie, apparently in Scotland, another reason they are losing pubs is because the licensing fee is prohibitive.
Siobhan, in South Boston…that is still how the give directions!
Iota, It’s really hard to believe that the village centre is losing its post office and its pubs. Some of the most beautiful buildings in a village are the pubs.