the disappearing pubs of England

this topic is getting some airing at the mo over here - perhaps there were just too many methinks - but hundreds a year closing down. It saddens me as I have always been a pub participant - well more in UK than OZ I must say. what keeps me out really is the pricing the difference of a drink from the pub and made at home is $9 in the pub as opposed to 30 cents at home!! that says it all - and the last pub I visited a brand new one in fact in town served lousy food - say no more. but having said that there are still some great pubs in OZ and they do there best to survive. and the one pub in the lone one horse town does still  act as a magnet to the local community.

We find that too Davo. We have two pubs in the mighty metropolis of Waipawa (pop. 3400) Both have great food and a friendly staff. One is on the main road and gets mostly passing traffic as we are on State Highway 2, the other is a bit out of sight from the road so is mostly frequented by locals. As New Zealand's oldest inland town it was a days horse ride from the nearest big town of Hastings and a days horse ride to Dannevirke if you're travelling South. So the town developed as a staging post. They had pubs and stables for the horses. Sleep over then off in the morning. An interesting aside is that every hotel was burned down at least twice! Must have been smoking in bed! Before there were bridges it might be several days wait before you could cross the river in flood, so a kindly local farmer named Frederick Abbott, built a shelter and a holding paddock so that travellers could wait in safety, and for 20 years it was known as "Abbottsford" but when he disappeared it reverted to it's Maori name of "Waipawa" which translates as "Misty River", and I can vouch for that as I live just above the river and if it's a misty morning it's going to be a great day.

The daughter of one of my friends and her husband bought a run-down pub in a village on the outskirts of Worcester just over a year ago. They got it at a knock down price because it lacked enough customers. However, they had grand ideas about tarting it up and introducing a bar menu with pub food to encourage business and make it the social centre of the village it once was.

They put it up for sale last week

Local villagers have been popping in to say how sorry they were and how much it would be missed - to which they reply - "then you villagers should have come here when we were open and spent a few pennies to keep us going"

Contrary to what was expected , with the introduction of a smoking ban within the pubs, customers have risen here. You can still smoke but you have to go to outside provided areas. I smoked up until 1970 but never since and my appreciation of food and wine is enhanced. No criticism of you Davo I know you like the cigar but at least they have a pleasant aroma.

Ciderman wrote:

No criticism of you Davo I know you like the cigar but at least they have a pleasant aroma.

You gotta be joking.....

The price of beer killed pubs along with a new generation's idea of how to spend their leisure time.
Now it's a few cans and a lot of TV......nothing to do with smoking !!

mind you I did see another doco of UK kids preparing for a night out and knocking back a large quantity of spirits before going and then just getting plastered when out but I am sure that this is a small representation of the full quota of youth in UK

The decline of the British pub has been going on for years-there are many reasons,granted the smoking ban may have helped but not to the extent that they are losing trade.
Anyone can get a pub these days you only have to look at the appearance of the managers,staff and the cleanliness in these places.

maybe there were just too many in the first place?

A friend of mine has a Restaurant in Washington, Tyne and Wear. He told me that when the smoking ban came into effect he lost two thirds of his regular customers. For the last two years he has been barely hanging on. He has had to reduce his wages and opening hours to keep the place running.

He also told me that he had spoken to one of his old regulars he met at the local Shopping Centre and was told him that the smoking ban had done it for him. Now him and his wife just get a take away along with a few cans of beer and sit at home doing there thing. 

Smoking Bans have had a lot to do with the demise of local Pub's and Restaraunts as I am hearing it. On the local News one chap in Glasgow said that he owned four Public Houses and he has had to close three of them since the smoking ban was introduced, he was also considering closing the fourth as it was hardly making enough to pay the Rates. He also mentioned that "When I heard about the smoking ban I thought that the places vacated by the smokers would be filled by non smokers wanting a good night out in a non-smoking environment. How wrong I was."

I would imagine Gandalph [welcome back by the way] that many smokers love combining their smoking habit with a drinking habit. I once worked in the treatment side of this sorry state and did come across some research [long lost unfortunately] that suggested a synergetic relationship between smoking and drinking alcohol!

families with children don't do the same thing, and so whilst occasionally enjoying a visit and drink at a pub I doubt would do it as regularly as some smokers I know [like every day!]

In OZ the challenge for pubs has been to provide a range of other attractions to bring in not so much the families but the young people. I remember visiting a local pub in the late 80's in OZ which always smelt of disinfectant and just seemed to cater for a few smokers and a dart team. Once smoking was banned new ownership took over, smartened it up, provided much better food and entertainment and were full to the gunnels!

davo wrote:

I would imagine Gandalph [welcome back by the way] that many smokers love combining their smoking habit with a drinking habit. I once worked in the treatment side of this sorry state and did come across some research [long lost unfortunately] that suggested a synergetic relationship between smoking and drinking alcohol!

families with children don't do the same thing, and so whilst occasionally enjoying a visit and drink at a pub I doubt would do it as regularly as some smokers I know [like every day!]

In OZ the challenge for pubs has been to provide a range of other attractions to bring in not so much the families but the young people. I remember visiting a local pub in the late 80's in OZ which always smelt of disinfectant and just seemed to cater for a few smokers and a dart team. Once smoking was banned new ownership took over, smartened it up, provided much better food and entertainment and were full to the gunnels!

Up here in the Scottish Borders everyone (except me) are Rugby fans. They used to go to the pub and enjoy a pint and a smoke and watch the Rugby on the big screens. All that has gone now davo, they get some tinnies in and stay at home with their big screens where they can have a drink and a smoke at the same time. I think that is what is killing off the pubs around here. One particular pub has changed hands about four times in as many years. Go in and you will be lucky to find more than a half dozen people in at any one time. 

Thank you for the welcome back. Very kind of you.

One of the main reasons for closures is the breweries greed for short term gain. They are putting up rents to tenants as soon as the contract ends,the rent rises are extortionate. The landlady at the pub where I used to play bowls had a rent increase from just over £30000 per annum to £56000. She asked how on earth she was to find this amount, and the brewery suggested she increased the price of food. Lichfield has far too many eating places as it is,and she was only able to attract people with low priced meals. Needles to say she gave her notice. The pub and land was then sold to a day nursery,The Humpty Dumpty day nursery,and we were evicted from the green. This practice is widespread

So you could say "She had a great fall".

Gandalph wrote:

So you could say "She had a great fall".