17. Time for a drink: the British pub.

It is appropriate that any book on Britain should end where many British people relax at the end of the working day, in that most popular of places for relaxation, the pub. The British pub exercises a special fascination for foreigners. In fact it is so popular that many imitations exist around the world, some relatively successful, others less so.

Public houses date back to the inns and taverns of the Middle Ages, places where local people met and where travellers stayed. They have always been characterised by conviviality, intimacy and an egalitarian atmosphere. They have always been immensely popular, as Dr Samuel Johnson, the eighteenth-century writer, remarked: 'No, Sir, there is nothing which has yet been contrived by man, by which so much happiness is produced, as by a good tavern or inn.’

For many British that feeling persists, but standards vary considerably. They still like to walk into their 'local' and be sure they will meet someone they know. 'In a good pub,' according to The Good Beer Guide, the greatest attention is given to the drink, and in particular to the beer. Sociability, on both sides of the bar, comes a close second. A good pub encourages social intercourse, and is not dominated by cliques... . In a good pub, whatever further services are offered, there is always one bar (and preferably two) to accommodate those people who simply want to drink and chat without distraction or inhibition induced by overbearing decor, noisy entertainment, or intrusive dining.

This succinct verdict sums up characteristics that should be present but are frequently missing in some of the 80,000 British pubs today. The reasons are manifold, but are largely to do with the integration and growing homogeneity of British society. During the 1960s half a dozen major beer breweries began to buy both small local breweries and local pubs. By the 1980s only a handful of small breweries and barely a quarter of all pubs remained independent. The big breweries bought the pubs in order to market their own beer as effectively as possible.

Traditional English ale or beer rapidly disappeared from most pubs during the 1960s and 1970s. This 'real ale' required special care, for it remained alive and continued to ferment in its wooden cask in the pub cellar, beneath the bar. It was made from barley, hops and pure water and required storage at a constant cool temperature. It was not refrigerated and contained no carbon dioxide gas. To those used to drinking refrigerated lager, real ale can taste flat, warm and weak. To many British, it is the only beer with real taste. The big breweries found it easier to produce 'keg' beer, a pasteurised brew, containing carbon dioxide, that required no special care. It was stored in metal barrels under pressure. It was easier for the manufacturer and for the publican who served the beer to the customer. But it did not compare with the real thing.

The big breweries, in fierce competition with each other, each tried to create their own 'house' style by ripping out the interiors of old pubs and refurbishing them according to a standard appearance which they believed would attract most customers. In so doing they destroyed an essential appeal of many pubs, their individuality. They also tried to improve efficiency and reduce the number of staff required to serve drinks. Most pubs had at least two different rooms for drinking, the public bar and a smarter and slightly more expensive 'saloon' bar.

It was only to saloon bars that women were taken until the greater social liberalisation of the 1960s. Pubs, it should be noted, are still essentially male preserves. Although the days are long past when a woman entering a pub alone was disapproved of, there are still a few pubs particularly in socially conservative areas where women are not welcome, and it is still true that men use pubs far more than do women.

The impact of big brewery control, therefore, is primarily twofold. The quality of the beer has gone down, and large open rooms have replaced two or three less efficient but more cosy rooms, thereby destroying the intimacy which made pubs attractive. The pubs owned by big breweries have also tried to concentrate on a particular clientele. In particular they have tried to appeal to younger people in their twenties. This was not a new development. Many pubs were known for their special character. For example in socially mixed parts of town one pub might be proudly working class and another might attract middle-class people. In Kilburn in London where a large Irish community exists a number of pubs had a strong Irish character. But by the mid-1990s 'Irish' pubs had become widespread, with the popularity of all things Irish. Some pubs have become favoured by particular sub-cultures: motorbikers, students, and so forth.

Yet the increased 'specialisation' of pubs has undermined an essential feature of pubs as local community centres where young and old, men and women may meet to relax. In particular, the absence of older men and also of women in many 'specialist' pubs, and the creation of large open rooms in place of more intimate nooks removes some of the restraining influences which discourage young men from drinking too much and misbehaving.

During the 1980s there was a revolt against the power of the big breweries. The Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) gained much popular support and a growing number of pubs began to stock real old-fashioned beer as well as keg beer. The big breweries began to allow their tenant publicans to develop the character of their pub as they chose, and to stock a wider variety of beer than merely one brand. In part this was because the big breweries found that pubs were now more profitable than the drink they produced, and that diversification in pubs was desirable.

Today an increasing number of pubs serve food, and coffee or tea as well as alcoholic drinks. Food, which accounted for only 10 per cent of profits in 1980 now accounts for more like 30 per cent. Providing good cheap food is now an important source of profit. The best pubs produce excellent homemade food and welcome families. The best also, even if they attract people from far and wide, still rely on a reliable local clientele who give the pub its basic atmosphere. The worst pubs remain impersonal and only serve mass-produced food, which is often more expensive and less tasty than homemade fare. The greatest threat to pub quality by the mid-1990s was arguably the noise of loud music, making conversation harder with a counterfeit atmosphere of conviviality.

In 1988 the government relaxed the previously strict opening hours, to allow pubs to remain open all day. Fewer than expected have used the opportunity, except to stay open on Saturday afternoons or to remain open for an extra hour on Sunday afternoons. In 1994 pubs were also allowed a certificate to allow children to enter the premises, on condition a separate area could be designated for family use.

Pubs will continue to vary greatly, between the delightful and the ghastly. But in some ways they reflect more accurately than anything else the strengths and weaknesses of British society -strong community feeling in one pub, for example, and the bland tasteless homogeneity of modern society in another. It is also in the pub that people are usually unafraid to express their views, whether these conform to traditional British characteristics of understatement and moderation or whether they reflect a new stridency. For anyone interested in understanding Britain better, the pub is not a bad place to start.

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