There's many reasons for how and why UK pubs are/have changed. Not to go down the non-smoking route (that's well covered on here already) but are pubs and their new image better places than they were?
Are they more interesting?
Is the 'banter' the people, the 'activities' the atmoshpere better or not?
What's missing from today's pubs? How are pubs today better than they were in say the 60's?
What do you miss about the 'old pub' ways?
Are the drinks on offer better value?
Do they taste better?
Does drinking out of a bottle bother you?
What type of person should be banned from pubs?
What about 'opening hours?'
Does food in a pub bother you?
What do you think about TV in pubs?
Should the Tap-room return?
How about a non-smoking ban after a certain time so working people can call for a pint and a puff?
Food for thought?...Or should we not eat while someone is carrying out an unsociable activity!
What do you miss or not! What would you like to see in 'The Pub' of the futer?
Just bring back the old fashioned local, a smoking snug and no smoking room. A real fire and NO TV!!
I dont go to pubs any more as its all very loud music or yelling at the footie, stupid dress codes and too darn expensive....and I cant have a ciggy with me pint. ( I was never a lady lol)
Different people want different things from a pub. Young un's want deafening and blinding not my cup of tea and they wouldn't be bothered about sitting down for a game of cards in our local. Barnsley is just full of pubs for young uns i'm only in my 40's and feel uncomfortable at times with the alchol fuelled louts.It would be a shame to lose the local like Kenkew describes but i can see it happening.
Well i'm going to stick my neck out here - and probably offend some (sorry), but others will know where i'm coming from...
Living in the country, were its 2.5 miles and a 30min / 45min walk to the pub, i'm more likely to see a rabbit than anyone else on the road home, i'm sure it used to be much better when you could have 3 or 4 pints and not have a care in the world about driving home.
Dont get me wrong I dont condone it and i dont do it!!!, but 20 / 30 years ago (maybe less) it was the norm if you lived in the sticks - everyone did it back then, just like smoking and ;D and eating pickled eggs.
Things i like in a pub is one where you can swear, burp, fart and not offend the blow-ins, one that stays open later than it should, where everyone knows your name (yes - like cheers), live music now and then.
Well, that's 3 out of 3 in favour of the traditional...isn't that 100% ?
Anyone want to counter balance the trend so far?
Hand pulled local bitter, the smell of wood (and pipe and f*g) smoke, an obnoxious landlord, a sloping, bumpy pool table that takes away the competitive element, a grease splattered menu with lots on it but which in fact only sells burgers, chips and scampi, a couple of locals who want to know who I am and why I'm here, unless I know them already, and then buy me a pint for simply existing... At weekends, I like a couple of guys with guitars to sing a few songs better than I can. I dunno, seems a long time since I was somewhere like that.
I worked in pubs as did my wife and mum. (we worked in the same pub as my mum but 20 years later)
Pubs did have to change by having TV's etc but I think the banter with locals is still there, tax on beer seems to be the main problem for pubs in my mind but also the smoking ban doesn't help and I can't work out why it had to be a blanket ban.
I'm not sure it was ok even 20 years ago to have 4 pints and then drive home on country roads, sure there is nobody else to kill but still it wasn't a great idea.
Sadly the pub we worked in was knocked down a few years ago because they wanted the land to build the little boxes people now call homes and the other two pubs have closed and will soon be little boxes too.
I stopped going to pubs years ago for various reasons;
kids / money (as a result of having aforementioned kids) / inavailability of babysitters
other pub goers
smokers
however I often consider moving from where I am now to somewhere where there's a nice pub within walking distance. The pubs where I live are all dives where your feet stick to the floor and you don't dare touch the seats for fear of what that strange stain is. :-\
I suppose what I'm looking for is a traditional pub which is clean and friendly, with no TV and a pool table and which is within walking distance (or rather stumbling distance) of home.
Fat chance of getting that round here! ::)
I like the chopice between having some modernised pubs and some with more trad leanings.
What I don't like in a pub is:
Music so loud that you can't hear yourselves speak.
People that go there just to get tanked up ASAP, who definatly can't hold it: the lager louts and loutesses.
Kids running and screaming all around the place.
My old local used to have the big open fire, lots of stuffed animals on the walls (these were donated by the people that shot them, not from the local Make-Your-Fake-Olde-Worldie pub store house), and all the old blokes had their "own" seats, etc.
It did have some drawbacks: the flug of all the f*g smoke, and as Keef says, the amount of drink driving (which did result in a number of crashes, injures and deaths). But on the other hand, it was friendly, had atmosphere and, apart from the road carnage, was a place you could feel safe in.
I miss Sunday lunch time, up at 11 8) in the local for 12. 2 or 3 pints and a packet of peanut to keep ya going till(well i did miss breakfast) ya dinner, the odd game of Dom's and the crack with ya mates. Off home at 2.30 having remembered :o :ya dinner will be in the dog if ya not home for 2!,and then after big roast beef n puds dinner it's falling asleep(in the background theres that hypnotic sound of the wife washing the pots) watching a crap Sunday afternoon film on the telly.Mmmm them was the days! where did it all go wrong. ??? :-\ :'(
Isnt nostalgia great?
Im back in my old local as is described beautifully and accurately by everyone.
You know what they say... old fashions come back, how long did it take for flared trousers and knitting to be revived ;D
I miss Sunday lunch time, up at 5.30 down the allotment for 8, potter about, the crack with ya mates, and then and only then when ya flask is empty (about 1 ish)it's off to the local, to listen to the song 'Since I've bin gone' playing over and over again because somebodies boy/girl Friend packet them in last night ::),or to watch(on one of the TVs in every corner of the pup) last months highlights of a football game from a land you never new existed and because theres no sound you will never know who the bloodyhell they are. ??? Or ya stand there watching other people having there traditional sunday lunch of Kiev's/burgers/fish things, all served with chips not a Yorkshire pud to be seen. :'( And to top it all the bar thing tells you we don't do Mild anymore as theres no call for it, so it's a chemical beer or a smooth chemical beer, and now an extra cold chemical beer to replace the mild nobody apart from you drinks. >:( Back home for dinner about 1.20 ish, after (it's still big)a Sunday roast dinner it's the job of finding a bloody film on one of the hundred so channels on the telly. :( And now it's not that hypnotic sound of the wife doing(she likes doing them......really. ;)) the pots that send me off to the land of nod, but the need at my age for an afternoon nap. :-[ When did it all go wrong. ??? :-\ :'(
Stick around for another 15 to 20 years and they'll all be hankering after getting the old fashioned pub back. Mark my words, WHEN that happens they will be sooo full.............well I can dream, cant I? :)
I hate to say it but..........our local has no TV, No mobiles allowed, has roaring fires in the winter, has local beer pulled, does a mean inexpensive, ham, egg n chips, and has great friendly bar staff, the usuals propping up the bar daily! I still remember it having sawdust on the floor! And is nice n cosy!
(has good beer festivals too!!) and I have just discovered it has a website!!
http://www.wheatsheafcrowborough.co.uk/ (http://www.wheatsheafcrowborough.co.uk/)
Smoking like everyone outside now, but we can't afford to go very often, cheaper to stay at home with a bottle! :'( :'( And it is a bu**er of a walk home for us, a mean uphill 45 min walk! :o
You lucky, lucky thing........green with envy
Crikey, my local has only just got an electronic till !!!
Oh it's-a lonesome away from your kindred and all
By the campfire at night we'll hear the wild dingoes call
But there's-a nothing so lonesome, morbid or drear
Than to stand in the bar of a pub with no beer
Now the publican's anxious for the quota to come
And there's a far away look on the face of the bum
The maid's gone all cranky and the cook's acting queer
Oh what a terrible place is a pub with no beer
Then the stockman rides up with his dry dusty throat
He breasts up to the bar and pulls a wad from his coat
But the smile on his face quickly turns to a sneer
As the barman says sadly the pub's got no beer
Then the swaggie comes in smothered in dust and flies
He throws down his roll and rubs the sweat from his eyes
But when he is told, he says what's this I hear
I've trudged fifty flamin' miles to a pub with no beer
Now there's a dog on the v'randa, for his master he waits
But the boss is inside drinking wine with his mates
He hurries for cover and he cringes in fear
It's no place for a dog 'round a pub with no beer
And old Billy the blacksmith, the first time in his life
Why he's gone home cold sober to his darling wife
He walks in the kitchen, she says you're early Bill dear
But then he breaks down and tells her the pub's got no beer
Oh it's hard to believe that there's customers still
But the money's still tinkling in the old ancient till
The wine buffs are happy and I know they're sincere
When they say they don't care if the pub's got no beer
So it's-a lonesome away from your kindred and all
By the campfire at night we'll hear the wild dingoes call
But there's-a nothing so lonesome, morbid or drear-a
Than to stand in the bar of the pub with no beer.
;D Excellent!
Vony,
Thanks for that - last time i heard it was 1963!
There's plenty of Mild in Derby Froglegs.. Real Ale capital of the UK!
;D
Quote from: saddad on October 18, 2007, 22:28:06
There's plenty of Mild in Derby Froglegs.. Real Ale capital of the UK!
;D
Skuse me saddad, but the brewing capital of the universe was Burton upon Trent.
valmarg