A public house, informally known as a pub, is a drinking establishment

Drinking establishment

A drinking establishment is a business whose primary function is the serving of alcoholic beverages for consumption on the premises. Some establishments may also serve food, or have entertainment, but their main purpose is to serve alcoholic beverages...

 fundamental to the culture of Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand

Culture of New Zealand

The culture of New Zealand is largely inherited from British and European custom, interwoven with Maori and Polynesian tradition. An isolated Pacific Island nation, New Zealand was comparatively recently settled by humans...

. There are approximately 53,500 public houses in the United Kingdom. This number has been declining every year, so that nearly half of the smaller villages no longer have a local pub. In many places, especially in villages, a pub can be the focal point of the community. The writings of Samuel Pepys

Samuel Pepys

Samuel Pepys FRS, MP, JP, was an English naval administrator and Member of Parliament who is now most famous for the diary he kept for a decade while still a relatively young man...

 describe the pub as the heart of England.

The history of pubs can be traced back to Roman tavern

Tavern

A tavern is a place of business where people gather to drink alcoholic beverages and be served food, and in some cases, where travelers receive lodging....

s, through the Anglo-Saxon

Anglo-Saxon

Anglo-Saxon may refer to:* Anglo-Saxons, a group that invaded Britain** Old English, their language** Anglo-Saxon England, their history, one of various ships* White Anglo-Saxon Protestant, an ethnicity* Anglo-Saxon economy, modern macroeconomic term...

 alehouse to the development of the modern tied house

Tied house

In the UK a tied house is a public house that is required to buy at least some of its beer from a particular brewery. This is in contrast to a free house, which is able to choose the beers it stocks freely.- Definition of "tied" :...

 system in the 19th century.

Historically, public houses have been socially and culturally distinct from café

Café

A café , also spelled cafe, in most countries refers to an establishment which focuses on serving coffee, like an American coffeehouse. In the United States, it may refer to an informal restaurant, offering a range of hot meals and made-to-order sandwiches...

s, bars

Bar (establishment)

A bar is a business establishment that serves alcoholic drinks — beer, wine, liquor, and cocktails — for consumption on the premises.Bars provide stools or chairs that are placed at tables or counters for their patrons. Some bars have entertainment on a stage, such as a live band, comedians, go-go...

, bierkellers

Beer hall

A beer hall is a large pub that specializes in beer. Bavaria's capital Munich is the city most associated with beer halls; almost every brewery in Munich operates a beer hall...

 and brewpubs. Most public houses offer a range of beer

Beer

Beer is the world's most widely consumed andprobably oldest alcoholic beverage; it is the third most popular drink overall, after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of sugars, mainly derived from malted cereal grains, most commonly malted barley and malted wheat...

s, wine

Wine

Wine is an alcoholic beverage, made of fermented fruit juice, usually from grapes. The natural chemical balance of grapes lets them ferment without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes, or other nutrients. Grape wine is produced by fermenting crushed grapes using various types of yeast. Yeast...

s, spirits, and soft drinks. Many pubs are controlled by breweries, so cask ale

Cask ale

Cask ale or cask-conditioned beer is the term for unfiltered and unpasteurised beer which is conditioned and served from a cask without additional nitrogen or carbon dioxide pressure...

 or keg beer may be a better value than wines and spirits. Traditionally the windows of town pubs were of smoked or frosted glass to obscure the clientele from the street. In the last twenty years in the UK and other countries there has been a move towards clear glass, in keeping with with brighter interior décors.

The owner, tenant or manager (licensee) of a public house is properly known as the "pub landlord". The term publican

Publican

In antiquity, publicans were public contractors, in which role they often supplied the Roman legions and military, managed the collection of port duties, and oversaw public building projects...

 (in historical Roman usage a public contractor or tax farmer

Tax farming

Farming is a technique of financial management, namely the process of commuting , by its assignment by legal contract to a third party, a future uncertain revenue stream into fixed and certain periodic rents, in consideration for which commutation a discount in value received is suffered...

) has come into use since Victorian times to designate the pub landlord. Known as a 'local' to regulars, pubs are typically chosen for their proximity to work, the availability of a particular beer, as a place to smoke (or avoid it

Smoking ban

Smoking bans are public policies, including criminal laws and occupational safety and health regulations, which prohibit tobacco smoking in workplaces and/or other public spaces...

), hosting a darts

Darts

Darts is a form of throwing game where darts are thrown at a circular target fixed to a wall. Though various boards and games have been used in the past, the term "darts" usually now refers to a standardised game involving a specific board design and set of rules...

 team, having a pool

Billiards

Cue sports , also known as billiard sports, are a wide variety of games of skill generally played with a cue stick which is used to strike billiard balls, moving them around a cloth-covered billiards table bounded by rubber .Historically, the umbrella term was billiards...

 table, or appealing to friends.

Until the 1970s most of the larger public houses also featured an off-sales counter or attached shop for the sales of beers, wines and spirits for home consumption. In the 1970s the newly built supermarket

Supermarket

A supermarket, a form of grocery store, is a self-service store offering a wide variety of food and household merchandise, organized into departments...

s and high street chain store

Chain store

Chain stores are retail outlets that share a brand and central management, and usually have standardized business methods and practices. These characteristics also apply to chain restaurants and some service-oriented chain businesses. In retail, dining and many service categories, chain businesses...

s or off-licences undercut the pub prices to such a degree that within ten years all but a handful of pubs had closed their off-sale counters. A society with a particular interest in beers, stouts and ales

Ale

Ale is a type of beer brewed from malted barley using a warm fermentation with a strain of brewers' yeast. The yeast will ferment the beer quickly, giving it a sweet, full bodied and fruity taste...

 in the British Isles, as well preserving the integrity of the UK public house, is the Campaign for Real Ale

Campaign for Real Ale

The Campaign for Real Ale is an independent voluntary consumer organisation based in St Albans, England, whose main aims are promoting real ale, real cider and the traditional British pub...

 (CAMRA).

History

The inhabitants of Great Britain have been drinking ale since the Bronze Age

Bronze Age

The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...

, but it was with the arrival of the Romans

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....

 and the establishment of the Roman road

Roman road

The Roman roads were a vital part of the development of the Roman state, from about 500 BC through the expansion during the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire. Roman roads enabled the Romans to move armies and trade goods and to communicate. The Roman road system spanned more than 400,000 km...

 network that the first inns called taberna

Taberna

A taberna was a single room shop covered by a barrel vault within great indoor markets of ancient Rome. Each taberna had a window above it to let light into a wooden attic for storage and had a wide doorway....

e, in which the traveller could obtain refreshment, began to appear. After the departure of Roman authority and the fall of the Romano-British kingdoms, the Anglo-Saxon

Anglo-Saxon

Anglo-Saxon may refer to:* Anglo-Saxons, a group that invaded Britain** Old English, their language** Anglo-Saxon England, their history, one of various ships* White Anglo-Saxon Protestant, an ethnicity* Anglo-Saxon economy, modern macroeconomic term...

s established alehouses that grew out of domestic dwellings. The Anglo-Saxon alewife would put a green bush up on a pole to let people know her brew was ready. These alehouses formed meeting houses for the locals to meet and gossip and arrange mutual help within their communities. Here lie the beginnings of the modern pub. They became so commonplace that in 965 King Edgar

Edgar of England

Edgar the Peaceful, or Edgar I , also called the Peaceable, was a king of England . Edgar was the younger son of Edmund I of England.-Accession:...

 decreed that there should be no more than one alehouse per village.

A traveller in the early Middle Ages

Middle Ages

The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...

 could obtain overnight accommodation in monasteries, but later a demand for hostelries grew with the popularity of pilgrimage

Pilgrimage

A pilgrimage is a journey or search of great moral or spiritual significance. Typically, it is a journey to a shrine or other location of importance to a person's beliefs and faith...

s and travel. The Hostellers of London were granted guild

Guild

A guild is an association of craftsmen in a particular trade. The earliest types of guild were formed as confraternities of workers. They were organized in a manner something between a trade union, a cartel, and a secret society...

 status in 1446 and in 1514 the guild became the Worshipful Company of Innholders

Worshipful Company of Innholders

The Worshipful Company of Innholders is one of the 108 Livery Companies of the City of London.The Innholders were originally known as Hostellers, but their name had changed by the time it was incorporated under a Royal Charter in 1514...

.

Inns

Inns are generally establishments or buildings where travellers can seek lodging

Lodging

Lodging is a type of residential accommodation. People who travel and stay away from home for more than a day need lodging for sleep, rest, safety, shelter from cold temperatures or rain, storage of luggage and access to common household functions.Lodgings may be self catering in which case no...

 and, usually, food and drink. They are typically located in the country or along a highway. Found in Europe, they possibly first sprang up when the Romans

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....

 built their system of Roman road

Roman road

The Roman roads were a vital part of the development of the Roman state, from about 500 BC through the expansion during the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire. Roman roads enabled the Romans to move armies and trade goods and to communicate. The Roman road system spanned more than 400,000 km...

s two millennia ago. Some inns in Europe are several centuries

Century

A century is one hundred consecutive years. Centuries are numbered ordinally in English and many other languages .-Start and end in the Gregorian Calendar:...

 old. In addition to providing for the needs of travellers, inns traditionally acted as community

Community

The term community has two distinct meanings:*a group of interacting people, possibly living in close proximity, and often refers to a group that shares some common values, and is attributed with social cohesion within a shared geographical location, generally in social units larger than a household...

 gathering places.

In Europe, it is the provision of accommodation, if anything, that now separates inns from tavern

Tavern

A tavern is a place of business where people gather to drink alcoholic beverages and be served food, and in some cases, where travelers receive lodging....

s, alehouses and pubs. The latter tend to supply alcohol (and, in the UK, usually soft drinks and sometimes food), but less commonly accommodation. Inns tend to be grander and more long-lived establishments; historically they provided not only food and lodging, but also stabling

Stable

A stable is a building in which livestock, especially horses, are kept. It most commonly means a building that is divided into separate stalls for individual animals...

 and fodder

Fodder

Fodder or animal feed is any agricultural foodstuff used specifically to feed domesticated livestock such as cattle, goats, sheep, horses, chickens and pigs. Most animal feed is from plants but some is of animal origin...

 for the traveller's horse(s) and fresh horses for the mail coach

Mail coach

In Great Britain, the mail coach or post coach was a horse-drawn carriage that carried mail deliveries, from 1784. In Ireland, the first mail coach began service from Dublin in 1789. The coach was drawn by four horses and had seating for four passengers inside. Further passengers were later allowed...

. Famous London examples of inns include the George and The Tabard

The Tabard

The Tabard, an inn that stood on the east side of Borough High Street in Southwark, was established in 1307, when the abbot of Hyde purchased the land to construct a hostel for himself and his brethren, when business took them to London, as well as an inn to accommodate the numerous pilgrims headed...

. There is however no longer a formal distinction between an inn and other kinds of establishment. Many pubs use the name "inn", either because they are long established and may have been formerly coaching inn

Coaching inn

In Europe, from approximately the mid-17th century for a period of about 200 years, the coaching inn, sometimes called a coaching house or staging inn, was a vital part of the inland transport infrastructure, as an inn serving coach travelers...

s, or to summon up a particular kind of image, or in many cases simply as a pun

Pun

The pun, also called paronomasia, is a form of word play which suggests two or more meanings, by exploiting multiple meanings of words, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from the intentional use and abuse of homophonic,...

 on the word "in" such as "The Welcome Inn" the name of many pubs in Scotland.

The original functions of an inn are now usually split among separate establishments, such as hotel

Hotel

A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. The provision of basic accommodation, in times past, consisting only of a room with a bed, a cupboard, a small table and a washstand has largely been replaced by rooms with modern facilities, including en-suite bathrooms...

s, lodges, and motel

Motel

A motor hotel, or motel for short, is a hotel designed for motorists, and usually has a parking area for motor vehicles...

s, all of which might provide the traditional functions of an inn but which focus more on lodging customers than on other services; public houses, which are primarily alcohol-serving establishments; and restaurant

Restaurant

A restaurant is an establishment which prepares and serves food and drink to customers in return for money. Meals are generally served and eaten on premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services...

s and taverns, which serve food and drink. (Hotels often contain restaurants and also often serve complimentary breakfast and meals, thus providing all of the functions of traditional inns.) In North America, the lodging aspect of the word "inn" lives on in hotel brand

Brand

The American Marketing Association defines a brand as a "Name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller's good or service as distinct from those of other sellers."...

 names like Holiday Inn

Holiday Inn

Holiday Inn is a brand of hotels, formally a economy motel chain, forming part of the British InterContinental Hotels Group . It is one of the world's largest hotel chains with 238,440 bedrooms and 1,301 hotels globally. There are currently 5 hotels in the pipeline...

, and in some state laws that refer to lodging operators as innkeepers.

The Inns of Court

Inns of Court

The Inns of Court in London are the professional associations for barristers in England and Wales. All such barristers must belong to one such association. They have supervisory and disciplinary functions over their members. The Inns also provide libraries, dining facilities and professional...

 in London were originally ordinary inns where barrister

Barrister

A barrister is a member of one of the two classes of lawyer found in many common law jurisdictions with split legal professions. Barristers specialise in courtroom advocacy, drafting legal pleadings and giving expert legal opinions...

s met to do business, but have become institutions of the legal profession in England and Wales

England and Wales

England and Wales is a jurisdiction within the United Kingdom. It consists of England and Wales, two of the four countries of the United Kingdom...

.

Beer Houses and the 1830 Beer Act

Traditional English ale

Ale

Ale is a type of beer brewed from malted barley using a warm fermentation with a strain of brewers' yeast. The yeast will ferment the beer quickly, giving it a sweet, full bodied and fruity taste...

 was made solely from fermented malt

Malt

Malt is germinated cereal grains that have been dried in a process known as "malting". The grains are made to germinate by soaking in water, and are then halted from germinating further by drying with hot air...

. The practice of adding hops

Hops

Hops are the female flower clusters , of a hop species, Humulus lupulus. They are used primarily as a flavoring and stability agent in beer, to which they impart a bitter, tangy flavor, though hops are also used for various purposes in other beverages and herbal medicine...

 to produce beer was introduced from the Netherlands in the early 15th century. Alehouses would each brew their own distinctive ale, but independent breweries began to appear in the late 17th century. By the end of the century almost all beer was brewed by commercial breweries.

The 18th century saw a huge growth in the number of drinking establishments, primarily due to the introduction of gin

Gin

Gin is a spirit which derives its predominant flavour from juniper berries . Although several different styles of gin have existed since its origins, it is broadly differentiated into two basic legal categories...

. Gin was brought to England by the Dutch after the Glorious Revolution

Glorious Revolution

The Glorious Revolution, also called the Revolution of 1688, is the overthrow of King James II of England by a union of English Parliamentarians with the Dutch stadtholder William III of Orange-Nassau...

 of 1688 and started to become very popular after the government created a market for grain that was unfit to be used in brewing by allowing unlicensed gin production, whilst imposing a heavy duty

Duty

Duty is a term that conveys a sense of moral commitment to someone or something. The moral commitment is the sort that results in action and it is not a matter of passive feeling or mere recognition...

 on all imported spirits. As thousands of gin-shops sprang up all over England, brewers fought back by increasing the number of alehouses. By 1740 the production of gin had increased to six times that of beer and because of its cheapness it became popular with the poor, leading to the so-called Gin Craze

Gin Craze

The Gin Craze was a period in the first half of the 18th century when the consumption of gin increased rapidly in Great Britain, especially in London...

. Over half of the 15,000 drinking establishments in London were gin-shops.

The drunkenness and lawlessness created by gin was seen to lead to ruination and degradation of the working classes. The distinction was illustrated by William Hogarth

William Hogarth

William Hogarth was an English painter, printmaker, pictorial satirist, social critic and editorial cartoonist who has been credited with pioneering western sequential art. His work ranged from realistic portraiture to comic strip-like series of pictures called "modern moral subjects"...

 in his engravings Beer Street and Gin Lane. The Gin Act (1736) imposed high taxes on retailers but led to riots in the streets. The prohibitive duty was gradually reduced and finally abolished in 1742. The 1751 Gin Act

Gin Act 1751

The Sale of Spirits Act 1750 was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain which was enacted in order to reduce the consumption of spirits, a popular pastime that was regarded as one of the primary causes of crime in London...

 however was more successful. It forced distillers to sell only to licensed retailers and brought gin-shops under the jurisdiction of local magistrates.

By the early 19th century and encouraged by a lowering of duties on gin, the gin houses or "Gin Palaces" had spread from London to most major cities and towns in Britain, with most of the new establishments illegal and unlicensed. These bawdy, loud and unruly drinking dens so often described by Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens

Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...

 in his Sketches by Boz

Sketches by Boz

Sketches by "Boz," Illustrative of Every-day Life and Every-day People is a collection of short pieces published by Charles Dickens in 1836 accompanied by illustrations by George Cruikshank. The 56 sketches concern London scenes and people and are divided into four sections: "Our Parish",...

(published 1835–6) increasingly came to be held as unbridled cesspits of immorality or crime and the source of much ill-health and alcoholism among the working classes.

Under a banner of "reducing public drunkenness" the Beer Act of 1830 introduced a new lower tier of premises permitted to sell alcohol, the Beer Houses. At the time beer was viewed as harmless, nutritious and even healthy. Young children were often given what was described as small beer, which was brewed to have a low alcohol content, to drink, as the local water was often unsafe. Even the evangelical church and temperance movement

Temperance movement

A temperance movement is a social movement urging reduced use of alcoholic beverages. Temperance movements may criticize excessive alcohol use, promote complete abstinence , or pressure the government to enact anti-alcohol legislation or complete prohibition of alcohol.-Temperance movement by...

s of the day viewed the drinking of beer very much as a secondary evil and a normal accompaniment to a meal. The freely available beer was thus intended to wean the drinkers off the evils of gin, or so the thinking went.

Under the 1830 Act any householder who paid rates could apply, with a one-off payment of two guineas

Guinea (British coin)

The guinea is a coin that was minted in the Kingdom of England and later in the Kingdom of Great Britain and the United Kingdom between 1663 and 1813...

 (equal to £ today), to sell beer or cider

Cider

Cider or cyder is a fermented alcoholic beverage made from apple juice. Cider varies in alcohol content from 2% abv to 8.5% abv or more in traditional English ciders. In some regions, such as Germany and America, cider may be termed "apple wine"...

 in his home (usually the front parlour) and even brew his own on his premises. The permission did not extend to the sale of spirits and fortified wines and any beer house discovered selling those items was closed down and the owner heavily fined. Beer houses were not permitted to open on Sundays. The beer was usually served in jugs or dispensed directly from tapped wooden barrels lying on a table in the corner of the room. Often profits were so high the owners were able to buy the house next door to live in, turning every room in their former home into bars and lounges for customers.

In the first year, four hundred beer houses opened and within eight years there were 46,000 opened across the country, far outnumbering the combined total of long-established taverns, public houses, inns and hotels. Because it was so easy to obtain permission and the profits could be huge compared to the low cost of gaining permission, the number of beer houses was continuing to rise and in some towns nearly every other house in a street could be a beer house. Finally in 1869 the growth had to be checked by magisterial control and new licensing laws were introduced. Only then was the ease by which permission could be obtained reduced and the licensing laws which operate today formulated.

Although the new licensing laws prevented any new beer houses from being created, those already in existence were allowed to continue and many did not fully die out until nearly the end of the 19th century. A very small number remained into the 21st century. A vast majority of the beer houses applied for the new licences and became full public houses. These usually small establishments can still be identified in many towns, seemingly oddly located in the middle of otherwise terraced housing part way up a street, unlike purpose-built pubs that are usually found on corners or road junctions. Many of today's respected real ale micro-brewers in the UK started as home based Beer House brewers under the 1830 Act.

The beer houses also tended to avoid the traditional public house names like The Crown, The Red Lion, The Royal Oak etc. and, if they did not simply name their place Smith's Beer House, they would apply topical pub names in an effort to reflect the mood of the times.

Licensing laws

From the middle of the 19th century restrictions were placed on the opening hours of licensed premises in the UK. However licensing was gradually liberalised after the 1960s, until contested licensing applications became very rare, and the remaining administrative function was transferred to Local Authorities in 2005.

The Wine and Beerhouse Act 1869 reintroduced the stricter controls of the previous century. The sale of beers, wines or spirits required a licence for the premises from the local magistrates. Further provisions regulated gaming, drunkenness, prostitution

Prostitution

Prostitution is the act or practice of providing sexual services to another person in return for payment. The person who receives payment for sexual services is called a prostitute and the person who receives such services is known by a multitude of terms, including a "john". Prostitution is one of...

 and undesirable conduct on licensed premises, enforceable by prosecution or more effectively by the landlord under threat of forfeiting his licence. Licences were only granted, transferred or renewed at special Licensing Sessions courts, and were limited to respectable individuals. Often these were ex-servicemen or ex-policemen; retiring to run a pub was popular amongst military officers at the end of their service. Licence conditions varied widely, according to local practice. They would specify permitted hours, which might require Sunday closing, or conversely permit all-night opening near a market. Typically they might require opening throughout the permitted hours, and the provision of food or lavatories. Once obtained, licences were jealously protected by the licensees (always persons expected to be generally present, not a remote owner or company), and even "Occasional Licences" to serve drinks at temporary premises such as fêtes would usually be granted only to existing licensees. Objections might be made by the police, rival landlords or anyone else on the grounds of infractions such as serving drunks, disorderly or dirty premises, or ignoring permitted hours.

Detailed records were kept on licensing, giving the Public House, its address, owner, licensee and misdemeanours of the licensees for periods often going back for hundreds of years. Many of these records survive and can be viewed, for example, at the London Metropolitan Archives

London Metropolitan Archives

The London Metropolitan Archives are the main archives for the Greater London area. Established in 1997, having previously been known as the Greater London Record Office, they are financed by the City of London Corporation....

 centre.

These culminated in the Defence of the Realm Act of August 1914, which, along with the introduction of rationing

Rationing

Rationing is the controlled distribution of scarce resources, goods, or services. Rationing controls the size of the ration, one's allotted portion of the resources being distributed on a particular day or at a particular time.- In economics :...

 and the censorship

Censorship

thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...

 of the press for wartime purposes, also restricted the opening hours of public houses to 12 noon–2:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.–9:30 p.m. Opening for the full licensed hours was compulsory, and closing time was equally firmly enforced by the police; a landlord might lose his licence for infractions. There was a special case established under the State Management Scheme

State Management Scheme

The State Management Scheme saw the UK government take over and run the brewing, distribution and sale of liquor in three regions of the UK from 1916 until 1973....

 where the brewery and licensed premises were bought and run by the state until 1973, most notably in the Carlisle

City of Carlisle

The City of Carlisle is a local government district of Cumbria, England, with the status of a city and non-metropolitan district. It is named after its largest settlement, Carlisle, but covers a far larger area which includes the towns of Brampton and Longtown, as well as outlying villages...

 District. During the 20th century elsewhere, both the licensing laws and enforcement were progressively relaxed, and there were differences between parishes; in the 1960s, at closing time in Kensington

Kensington

Kensington is a district of west and central London, England within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. An affluent and densely-populated area, its commercial heart is Kensington High Street, and it contains the well-known museum district of South Kensington.To the north, Kensington is...

 at 10:30 p.m., drinkers would rush over the parish boundary to be in good time for "Last Orders" in Knightsbridge

Knightsbridge

Knightsbridge is a road which gives its name to an exclusive district lying to the west of central London. The road runs along the south side of Hyde Park, west from Hyde Park Corner, spanning the City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea...

 before 11 p.m., a practice observed in many pubs adjoining licensing area boundaries. Some Scottish and Welsh parish

Parish

A parish is a territorial unit historically under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of one parish priest, who might be assisted in his pastoral duties by a curate or curates - also priests but not the parish priest - from a more or less central parish church with its associated organization...

es remained officially "dry" on Sundays (although often this merely required knocking at the back door of the pub). These restricted opening hours led to the tradition of lock-ins.

However, closing times were increasingly disregarded in the country pubs. In England and Wales by 2000 pubs could legally open from 11 a.m. (12 noon on Sundays) through to 11 p.m. (10:30 p.m. on Sundays). That year was also the first to allow continuous opening for 36 hours from 11 a.m. on New Year's Eve

New Year's Eve

New Year's Eve is observed annually on December 31, the final day of any given year in the Gregorian calendar. In modern societies, New Year's Eve is often celebrated at social gatherings, during which participants dance, eat, consume alcoholic beverages, and watch or light fireworks to mark the...

 to 11 p.m. on New Year's Day

New Year's Day

New Year's Day is observed on January 1, the first day of the year on the modern Gregorian calendar as well as the Julian calendar used in ancient Rome...

. In addition, many cities had by-laws to allow some pubs to extend opening hours to midnight or 1 a.m., whilst nightclub

Nightclub

A nightclub is an entertainment venue which usually operates late into the night...

s had long been granted late licences to serve alcohol into the morning. Pubs in the immediate vicinity of London's Smithfield market

Smithfield, London

Smithfield is an area of the City of London, in the ward of Farringdon Without. It is located in the north-west part of the City, and is mostly known for its centuries-old meat market, today the last surviving historical wholesale market in Central London...

, Billingsgate

Billingsgate

Billingsgate is a small ward in the south-east of the City of London, lying on the north bank of the River Thames between London Bridge and Tower Bridge...

 fish market

Fish market

A fish market is a marketplace used for marketing fish products. It can be dedicated to wholesale trade between fishermen and fish merchants, or to the sale of seafood to individual consumers, or to both...

 and Covent Garden

Royal Opera House

The Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", after a previous use of the site of the opera house's original construction in 1732. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The...

 fruit and flower market were permitted to stay open 24 hours a day since Victorian era

Victorian era

The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...

 times to provide a service to the shift working employees of the markets.

Scotland's and Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...

's licensing laws have long been more flexible, allowing local authorities to set pub opening and closing times. In Scotland, this stemmed out of a late repeal of the wartime licensing laws, which stayed in force until 1976.

The Licensing Act 2003

Licensing Act 2003

The Licensing Act of 2003 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that applies only to England and Wales. The Act establishes a single integrated scheme for licensing premises which are used for the sale or supply of alcohol, to provide regulated entertainment, or to provide late night...

, which came into force on 24 November 2005, aimed to consolidate the many laws into a single act. This allowed pubs in England and Wales to apply to the local authority for the opening hours of their choice. Supporters at the time argued that it would end the concentration of violence around half past 11, when people had to leave the pub, making policing easier. In practice, alcohol-related hospital admissions rose following the change in the law, with alcohol involved in 207,800 admissions in 2006/7. Critics claimed that these laws would lead to "24-hour drinking". By the time the law came into effect, 60,326 establishments had applied for longer hours and 1,121 had applied for a licence to sell alcohol 24 hours a day. However, nine months after the act, many pubs had not changed their hours, although there was a tendency for some to be open longer at the weekend but rarely beyond 1:00 a.m..

Indoor smoking ban

In March 2006, a law was introduced to forbid smoking in all enclosed public places in Scotland. Wales followed suit in April 2007, with England introducing the ban in July 2007. Pub landlords had raised concerns prior to the implementation of the law that a smoking ban would have a negative impact on sales. After two years, the impact of the ban was mixed; some pubs suffered declining sales, while others developed their food sales. The Wetherspoons

Wetherspoons

J D Wetherspoon plc is a British pub chain based in Watford. Founded as a single pub in 1979 by Tim Martin, the company now owns 815 outlets. The chain champions cask ale, low prices, long opening hours, and no music. The company also operates the Lloyds No...

 pub chain reported in June 2009 that profits are at the top end of expectations; however, Scottish & Newcastle's takeover by Carlsberg and Heineken was reported in January 2008 as partly the result of its weakness following falling sales due to the ban.

Lock-in

A "lock-in" is when the owner of a public house allows a number of patrons to continue staying in the pub after the legal closing time, the idea being that once the doors are locked, it becomes a private party rather than a pub. Patrons may put money behind the bar before official closing time, and redeem their drinks during the lock-in so no drinks are technically sold after closing time. The origin of the lock-in in Britain was a reaction to changes in the licensing laws in England and Wales in 1915, which curtailed opening hours to stop factory workers from turning up drunk and harming the war effort. Since 1915 the licensing laws changed very little, leaving the United Kingdom with comparatively early closing times. The tradition of the lock-in therefore remained. Since the Licensing Act 2003

Licensing Act 2003

The Licensing Act of 2003 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that applies only to England and Wales. The Act establishes a single integrated scheme for licensing premises which are used for the sale or supply of alcohol, to provide regulated entertainment, or to provide late night...

 premises in England and Wales may apply to extend their opening hours beyond 11 p.m., allowing round-the-clock drinking and removing much of the need for lock-ins. Since the smoking ban, some establishments have operated a lock-in during which the remaining patrons can illicitly smoke without repercussions.

Saloon or lounge

By the end of the 18th century a new room in the pub was established: the saloon. Beer establishments had always provided entertainment of some sort—singing, gaming or a sport. Balls Pond Road in Islington was named after an establishment run by a Mr. Ball that had a pond at the rear filled with duck

Duck

Duck is the common name for a large number of species in the Anatidae family of birds, which also includes swans and geese. The ducks are divided among several subfamilies in the Anatidae family; they do not represent a monophyletic group but a form taxon, since swans and geese are not considered...

s, where drinkers could, for a certain fee, go out and take a potshot at shooting the fowl

Fowl

Fowl is a word for birds in general but usually refers to birds belonging to one of two biological orders, namely the gamefowl or landfowl and the waterfowl...

. More common, however, was a card room or a billiards room. The saloon was a room where for an admission fee or a higher price of drinks, singing, dancing, drama or comedy was performed and drinks would be served at the table. From this came the popular music hall

Music hall

Music Hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment which was popular between 1850 and 1960. The term can refer to:# A particular form of variety entertainment involving a mixture of popular song, comedy and speciality acts...

 form of entertainment—a show consisting of a variety of acts. A most famous London saloon was the Grecian Saloon in The Eagle, City Road

City Road

City Road or The City Road is a road that runs through inner north and central London. The northwestern extremity of the road is at the Angel, Islington where it forms a continuation of Pentonville Road. Pentonville Road itself is the modern name for London's first bypass, the New Road from...

, which is still famous these days because of an English nursery rhyme

Nursery rhyme

The term nursery rhyme is used for "traditional" poems for young children in Britain and many other countries, but usage only dates from the 19th century and in North America the older ‘Mother Goose Rhymes’ is still often used.-Lullabies:...

: "Up and down the City Road / In and out The Eagle / That's the way the money goes / Pop goes the weasel

Pop Goes the Weasel

"Pop! Goes the Weasel" is an English language nursery rhyme and singing game. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 5249.-Lyrics:There are many different versions of the lyrics to the song...

." The implication being that, having frequented the Eagle public house, the customer had spent all his money, and thus needed to 'pawn' his 'weasel' to get some more. The exact definition of the 'weasel' is unclear but the two most likely definitions are: that a weasel is a flat iron used for finishing clothing; or that 'weasel' is rhyming slang for a coat (weasel and stoat).

A few pubs have stage performances such as serious drama, stand-up comedy, musical bands or striptease

Striptease

A striptease is an erotic or exotic dance in which the performer gradually undresses, either partly or completely, in a seductive and sexually suggestive manner...

; however juke boxes and other forms of pre-recorded music have otherwise replaced the musical tradition of a piano and singing.

Public bar

By the 20th century, the saloon, or lounge bar, had settled into a middle-class room—carpets on the floor, cushions on the seats, and a penny or two on the prices, while the public bar, or tap room, remained working class

Working class

Working class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...

 with bare boards, sometimes with sawdust to absorb the spitting and spillages, hard bench seats, and cheap beer.

Later, the public bars gradually improved until sometimes almost the only difference was in the prices, so that customers could choose between economy and exclusivity (or youth and age, or a jukebox

Jukebox

A jukebox is a partially automated music-playing device, usually a coin-operated machine, that will play a patron's selection from self-contained media...

 or dartboard). During the blurring of the class divisions in the 1960s and 1970s, the distinction between the saloon and the public bar was often seen as archaic, and was frequently abolished, usually by the removal of the dividing wall or partition itself. While the names of saloon and public bar may still be seen on the doors of pubs, the prices (and often the standard of furnishings and decoration) are the same throughout the premises, and many pubs now comprise one large room. However, the modern importance of dining in pubs encourages some establishments to maintain distinct rooms or areas, especially where the building has the right characteristics for this. Yet, in a few pubs there still remain rooms or seats that, by local custom, "belong" to particular customers.

However there still remain a few, mainly city centre pubs, that retain a public bar mainly for working men that call in for a drink while still dressed in working clothes and dirty boots. They are now very much in a minority, but some landlords prefer to separate the manual workers from the better dressed white collar workers or diners in the lounge or restaurant.

Snug

The "snug", also sometimes called the Smoke room, was typically a small, very private room with access to the bar that had a frosted glass external window, set above head height. A higher price was paid for beer in the snug and nobody could look in and see the drinkers. It was not only the well off visitors who would use these rooms, the snug was for patrons who preferred not to be seen in the public bar. Ladies would often enjoy a private drink in the snug in a time when it was frowned upon for women to be in a pub. The local police officer would nip in for a quiet pint, the parish priest for his evening whisky, and lovers for a rendezvous.

Counter

It was the public house that first introduced the concept of the bar counter being used to serve the beer. Until that time beer establishments used to bring the beer out to the table or benches. A bar might be provided for the manager to do his paperwork whilst keeping an eye on his customers, but the casks of ale were kept in a separate taproom. When the first public houses were built, the main room was the public room with a large serving bar copied from the gin houses, the idea being to serve the maximum number of people in the shortest possible time. It became known as the public bar. The other, more private, rooms had no serving bar—they had the beer brought to them from the public bar. There are a number of pubs in the Midlands or the North which still retain this set up but these days the beer is fetched by the customer from the taproom or public bar. One of these is The Vine, known locally as The Bull and Bladder, in Brierley Hill

Brierley Hill

Brierley Hill is a town and electoral ward of the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley, West Midlands, England. It is one of the larger Black Country towns with a population of 9,631 and is heavily industrialised, best known for glass and steel manufacturing, although the industry has declined...

 near Birmingham. In the Manchester

Manchester

Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...

 district the public bar was known as the "vault", other rooms being the lounge and snug as usual elsewhere. By the early 1970s there was a tendency to change to one large drinking room and breweries were eager to invest in interior design and theming.

Isambard Kingdom Brunel

Isambard Kingdom Brunel

Isambard Kingdom Brunel, FRS , was a British civil engineer who built bridges and dockyards including the construction of the first major British railway, the Great Western Railway; a series of steamships, including the first propeller-driven transatlantic steamship; and numerous important bridges...

, the British engineer and railway builder, introduced the idea of a circular bar into the Swindon station pub in order that customers were served quickly and did not delay his trains. These island bars became popular as they also allowed staff to serve customers in several different rooms surrounding the bar.

Beer engine

A "beer engine" is a device for pump

Pump

A pump is a device used to move fluids, such as liquids, gases or slurries.A pump displaces a volume by physical or mechanical action. Pumps fall into three major groups: direct lift, displacement, and gravity pumps...

ing beer, originally manually operated and typically used to dispense beer from a cask

CASK

Peripheral plasma membrane protein CASK is a protein that in humans is encoded by the CASK gene. This gene is also known by several other names: CMG 2 , calcium/calmodulin-dependent serine protein kinase 3 and membrane-associated guanylate kinase 2.-Genomics:This gene is located on the short arm of...

 or container in a pub's basement or cellar. It was invented by the locksmith and hydraulic

Hydraulics

Hydraulics is a topic in applied science and engineering dealing with the mechanical properties of liquids. Fluid mechanics provides the theoretical foundation for hydraulics, which focuses on the engineering uses of fluid properties. In fluid power, hydraulics is used for the generation, control,...

 engineer Joseph Bramah

Joseph Bramah

Joseph Bramah , born Stainborough Lane Farm, Wentworth, Yorkshire, England, was an inventor and locksmith. He is best known for having invented the hydraulic press...

. Strictly the term refers to the pump itself, which is normally manually operated, though electrically powered and gas powered pumps are occasionally used. When manually powered, the term "handpump" is often used to refer to both the pump and the associated handle.

Pub companies

After the development of the large London Porter

Porter (beer)

Porter is a dark-coloured style of beer. The history and development of stout and porter are intertwined. The name was first used in the 18th century from its popularity with the street and river porters of London. It is generally brewed with dark malts...

 breweries in the 18th century, the trend grew for pubs to become tied house

Tied house

In the UK a tied house is a public house that is required to buy at least some of its beer from a particular brewery. This is in contrast to a free house, which is able to choose the beers it stocks freely.- Definition of "tied" :...

s which could only sell beer from one brewery (a pub not tied in this way was called a Free house). The usual arrangement for a tied house was that the pub was owned by the brewery but rented out to a private individual (landlord) who ran it as a separate business (even though contracted to buy the beer from the brewery). Another very common arrangement was (and is) for the landlord to own the premises (whether freehold or leasehold) independently of the brewer, but then to take a mortgage loan from a brewery, either to finance the purchase of the pub initially, or to refurbish it, and be required as a term of the loan to observe the solus tie.

A growing trend in the late 20th century was for breweries to run their pubs directly, using managers rather than tenants. Most such breweries, such as the regional brewery Shepherd Neame

Shepherd Neame

Shepherd Neame is an English regional brewery founded in 1698 by Richard Marsh in Faversham, Kent. It is a family owned brewery that produces a range of cask ales and filtered beers. Production is around 230,000 barrels a year...

 in Kent

Kent

Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...

 and Young's

Young's Brewery

Young's is a British pub chain operating nearly 220 pubs.The company was founded as a brewery in 1831 by Charles Young and Anthony Bainbridge when they purchased the Ram Brewery in Wandsworth...

 and Fuller's in London, control hundreds of pubs in a particular region of the UK, whilst a few, such as Greene King, are spread nationally. The landlord

Landlord

A landlord is the owner of a house, apartment, condominium, or real estate which is rented or leased to an individual or business, who is called a tenant . When a juristic person is in this position, the term landlord is used. Other terms include lessor and owner...

 of a tied pub may be an employee of the brewery—in which case he/she would be a manager of a managed house, or a self-employed tenant who has entered into a lease agreement with a brewery, a condition of which is the legal obligation (trade tie) only to purchase that brewery's beer. This tied agreement provides tenants with trade premises at a below market rent providing people with a low-cost entry into self-employment. The beer selection is mainly limited to beers brewed by that particular company. A Supply of Beer law

Beer Orders

The Supply of Beer Order 1989 and The Supply of Beer Order 1989, commonly known as the Beer Orders, were Statutory Instruments made by the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry in December 1989.The Orders restricted the number of tied pubs that could be owned by large brewery groups in the...

, passed in 1989, was aimed at getting tied houses to offer at least one alternative beer, known as a guest beer

Guest beer

In 1989, licensing legislation passed by Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government made it possible for a tied pub to stock at least one guest beer from a different brewery....

, from another brewery

Brewery

A brewery is a dedicated building for the making of beer, though beer can be made at home, and has been for much of beer's history. A company which makes beer is called either a brewery or a brewing company....

. This law has now been repealed but while in force it dramatically altered the industry. Some pubs still offer a regularly changing selection of guest beers.

The period since the 1980s saw many breweries absorbed by, or becoming by take-overs larger companies in the food, hotel or property sectors. The low returns of a pub-owning business led to many breweries selling their pub estates, especially those in cities, often to a new generation of small companies, many of which have now grown considerably and have a national presence. Other pub chain

Pub chain

A pub chain is a group of pubs or bars with a brand image. The brand may be owned outright by one company, or there may be multiple financiers; the chain may be a division within a larger company, or may be a single operation. Examples include Chef & Brewer, Wetherspoons, Walkabout, Taylor Walker...

s, such as All Bar One

All Bar One

All Bar One is a chain of bars in the UK, owned and operated by Mitchells and Butlers plc which was part of the Six Continents group until 2003....

and Slug and Lettuce offer youth-orientated atmospheres, often in premises larger than traditional pubs.

Organisations such as Wetherspoons

Wetherspoons

J D Wetherspoon plc is a British pub chain based in Watford. Founded as a single pub in 1979 by Tim Martin, the company now owns 815 outlets. The chain champions cask ale, low prices, long opening hours, and no music. The company also operates the Lloyds No...

, Punch Taverns

Punch Taverns

Punch Taverns plc is the largest pub and bar operator in the United Kingdom, with around 6,800 leased, tenanted and managed pubs. It is headquartered in the traditional brewing centre of Burton upon Trent in Staffordshire...

 and O'Neill's were formed in the UK since changes in legislation in the 1980s necessitated the break-up of many larger tied estates. A PubCo is a company involved in the retailing but not the manufacture of beverages, while a Pub chain

Pub chain

A pub chain is a group of pubs or bars with a brand image. The brand may be owned outright by one company, or there may be multiple financiers; the chain may be a division within a larger company, or may be a single operation. Examples include Chef & Brewer, Wetherspoons, Walkabout, Taylor Walker...

 may be run either by a PubCo or by a brewery.

Pubs within a chain will usually have items in common, such as fittings, promotions, ambience and range of food and drink on offer. A pub chain will position itself in the marketplace for a target audience. One company may run several pub chains aimed at different segments of the market. Pubs for use in a chain are bought and sold in large units, often from regional breweries which are then closed down. Newly acquired pubs are often renamed by the new owners, and many people resent the loss of traditional names, especially if their favourite regional beer disappears at the same time.

Brewery tap

A brewery tap is the nearest outlet for a brewery's beers. This is usually a room or bar in the brewery itself, though the name may be applied to the nearest pub. The term is not applied to a brewpub which brews and sells its beer on the same premises.

Country pubs

A "country pub" by tradition is a rural

Rural

Rural areas or the country or countryside are areas that are not urbanized, though when large areas are described, country towns and smaller cities will be included. They have a low population density, and typically much of the land is devoted to agriculture...

 public house. However, the distinctive culture surrounding country pubs, that of functioning as a social centre for a village and rural community, has been changing over the last thirty or so years. In the past, many rural pubs provided opportunities for country folk to meet and exchange (often local) news, while others—especially those away from village centres—existed for the general purpose, before the advent of motor transport, of serving travellers as coaching inns.

In more recent years, however, many country pubs have either closed down, or have been converted to establishments intent on providing seating facilities for the consumption of food, rather than a venue for members of the local community meeting and convivially drinking.

Theme pubs

Pubs that cater for a niche clientele, such as sports fans or people of certain nationalities are known as theme pubs. Examples of theme pubs include sport

Sport

A Sport is all forms of physical activity which, through casual or organised participation, aim to use, maintain or improve physical fitness and provide entertainment to participants. Sport may be competitive, where a winner or winners can be identified by objective means, and may require a degree...

s bars, rock

Rock and roll

Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...

 pubs, biker

Motorcycle

A motorcycle is a single-track, two-wheeled motor vehicle. Motorcycles vary considerably depending on the task for which they are designed, such as long distance travel, navigating congested urban traffic, cruising, sport and racing, or off-road conditions.Motorcycles are one of the most...

 pubs, Goth pubs, strip pubs, karaoke

Karaoke

is a form of interactive entertainment or video game in which amateur singers sing along with recorded music using a microphone and public address system. The music is typically a well-known pop song minus the lead vocal. Lyrics are usually displayed on a video screen, along with a moving symbol,...

 bars and Irish pubs (see below).

Signs

In 1393 King Richard II

Richard II of England

Richard II was King of England, a member of the House of Plantagenet and the last of its main-line kings. He ruled from 1377 until he was deposed in 1399. Richard was a son of Edward, the Black Prince, and was born during the reign of his grandfather, Edward III...

 compelled landlords to erect signs outside their premises. The legislation stated "Whosoever shall brew ale in the town with intention of selling it must hang out a sign, otherwise he shall forfeit his ale." This was in order to make alehouses easily visible to passing inspectors, borough

Borough

A borough is an administrative division in various countries. In principle, the term borough designates a self-governing township although, in practice, official use of the term varies widely....

 ale tasters, who would decide the quality of the ale they provided. William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...

's father, John Shakespeare

John Shakespeare

John Shakespeare was the father of William Shakespeare. He was the son of Richard Shakespeare of Snitterfield, a farmer. He moved to Stratford-upon-Avon and married Mary Arden, with whom he had eight children, five of whom survived into adulthood...

, was one such inspector.

Another important factor was that during the Middle Ages

Middle Ages

The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...

 a large proportion of the population would have been illiterate and so pictures on a sign were more useful than words as a means of identifying a public house. For this reason there was often no reason to write the establishment's name on the sign and inns opened without a formal written name, the name being derived later from the illustration on the public house's sign.

The earliest signs were often not painted but consisted, for example, of paraphernalia

Paraphernalia

In modern usage, the word paraphernalia most commonly refers to apparatus, equipment, or furnishing used in or necessary for a particular activity as in, "Beth is such an avid sports fan that her walls are covered with baseball paraphernalia"....

 connected with the brewing process such as bunches of hops or brewing implements, which were suspended above the door of the public house. In some cases local nicknames, farming terms and puns were also used. Local events were also often commemorated in pub signs. Simple natural or religious symbols such as 'The Sun', 'The Star' and 'The Cross' were also incorporated into pub signs, sometimes being adapted to incorporate elements of the heraldry

Heraldry

Heraldry is the profession, study, or art of creating, granting, and blazoning arms and ruling on questions of rank or protocol, as exercised by an officer of arms. Heraldry comes from Anglo-Norman herald, from the Germanic compound harja-waldaz, "army commander"...

 (e.g. the coat of arms) of the local lords who owned the lands upon which the public house stood. Some pubs also have Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

 inscriptions.

Other subjects that lent themselves to visual depiction included the name of battles (e.g. Trafalgar

Battle of Trafalgar

The Battle of Trafalgar was a sea battle fought between the British Royal Navy and the combined fleets of the French Navy and Spanish Navy, during the War of the Third Coalition of the Napoleonic Wars ....

), explorers, local notables, discoveries, sporting heroes and members of the royal family

British Royal Family

The British Royal Family is the group of close relatives of the monarch of the United Kingdom. The term is also commonly applied to the same group of people as the relations of the monarch in her or his role as sovereign of any of the other Commonwealth realms, thus sometimes at variance with...

. Some pub signs are in the form of a pictorial pun or rebus

Rebus

A rebus is an allusional device that uses pictures to represent words or parts of words. It was a favourite form of heraldic expression used in the Middle Ages to denote surnames, for example in its basic form 3 salmon fish to denote the name "Salmon"...

. For example, a pub in Crowborough

Crowborough

The highest point in the town is 242 metres above sea level. This summit is the highest point of the High Weald and second highest point in East Sussex . Its relative height is 159 m, meaning Crowborough qualifies as one of England's Marilyns...

, East Sussex

East Sussex

East Sussex is a county in South East England. It is bordered by the counties of Kent, Surrey and West Sussex, and to the south by the English Channel.-History:...

 called The Crow and Gate has an image of a crow with gates as wings.

A British Pathe News film of 1956 shows artist Michael Farrar-Bell

Michael Farrar-Bell

Michael C. Farrar-Bell was an artist, stained glass and postage stamp designer.He designed pub signs, then became best known as a stained glass designer as the last head of Clayton and Bell which had been one of the most prolific and proficient workshops of English stained glass during the latter...

 at work producing inn signs.

Most British pubs still have decorated signs hanging over their doors, and these retain their original function of enabling the identification of the public house. Today's pub signs almost always bear the name of the pub, both in words and in pictorial representation.
The more remote country pubs often have stand-alone signs directing potential customers to their door.

Names

Pub names are used to identify and differentiate each public house. Modern names are sometimes a marketing

Marketing

Marketing is the process used to determine what products or services may be of interest to customers, and the strategy to use in sales, communications and business development. It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business developments...

 ploy or attempt to create 'brand awareness', frequently using a comic theme thought to be memorable, Slug and Lettuce for a pub chain

Pub chain

A pub chain is a group of pubs or bars with a brand image. The brand may be owned outright by one company, or there may be multiple financiers; the chain may be a division within a larger company, or may be a single operation. Examples include Chef & Brewer, Wetherspoons, Walkabout, Taylor Walker...

 being an example. Interesting origins are not confined to old or traditional names, however. Names and their origins can be broken up into a relatively small number of categories.

As many public houses are centuries old, many of their early customers were unable to read, and pictorial signs could be readily recognised when lettering and words could not be read.

Pubs often have traditional names. A common name is the "Marquis of Granby". These pubs were named after John Manners, Marquess of Granby

John Manners, Marquess of Granby

General John Manners, Marquess of Granby PC, , British soldier, was the eldest son of the 3rd Duke of Rutland. As he did not outlive his father, he was known by his father's subsidiary title, Marquess of Granby...

, who was the son of John Manners, 3rd Duke of Rutland

John Manners, 3rd Duke of Rutland

John Manners, 3rd Duke of Rutland KG PC was an English nobleman, the eldest son of John Manners, 2nd Duke of Rutland and Catherine Russell...

 and a general

General

A general officer is an officer of high military rank, usually in the army, and in some nations, the air force. The term is widely used by many nations of the world, and when a country uses a different term, there is an equivalent title given....

 in the 18th century British Army

British Army

The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...

. He showed a great concern for the welfare of his men, and on their retirement, provided funds for many of them to establish taverns, which were subsequently named after him.
All public houses granted their license in 1780 were called the Royal George, after King George III, and the twentieth anniversary of his coronation.

Many names for pubs that appear nonsensical may have come from corruptions of old slogans or phrases, such as "The Bag o'Nails" (Bacchanals), "The Goat and Compasses" (God Encompasseth Us), "The Cat and the Fiddle" (Caton Fidèle) and "The Bull and Bush", which purportedly celebrates the victory of Henry VIII

Henry VIII of England

Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...

 at "Boulogne Bouche" or Boulogne-sur-Mer

Boulogne-sur-Mer

-Road:* Metropolitan bus services are operated by the TCRB* Coach services to Calais and Dunkerque* A16 motorway-Rail:* The main railway station is Gare de Boulogne-Ville and located in the south of the city....

 Harbour.

Entertainment

Traditional games are played in pubs, ranging from the well-known darts, skittles

Skittles (sport)

Skittles is an old European lawn game, a variety of bowling, from which ten-pin bowling, duckpin bowling, and candlepin bowling in the United States, and five-pin bowling in Canada are descended. In the United Kingdom, the game remains a popular pub game in England and Wales, though it tends to be...

, dominoes

Dominoes

Dominoes generally refers to the collective gaming pieces making up a domino set or to the subcategory of tile games played with domino pieces. In the area of mathematical tilings and polyominoes, the word domino often refers to any rectangle formed from joining two congruent squares edge to edge...

, cards and bar billiards

Bar billiards

Bar Billiards is a form of billiards which is often thought to be based on the traditional game of bagatelle. It is actually based on the French/Belgian Billard Russe game that preceded it....

, to the more obscure Aunt Sally

Aunt Sally

thumb|right|312px|A drawing from the 1911 edition of Whiteley's General Catalogue.Aunt Sally is a traditional throwing game. The term is often used metaphorically to mean something that is a target for criticism...

, Nine Men's Morris

Nine Men's Morris

Nine Men's Morris is an abstract strategy board game for two players that emerged from the Roman Empire. The game is also known as Nine Man Morris, Mill, Mills, Merels, Merelles, and Merrills in English....

 and ringing the bull

Ringing the bull

Ring the bull is a pub game. It involves swinging a bull's nose-ring, which is attached to a string, in an arc so as to hook it onto a bull's nose and hook...

. In the UK betting is legally limited to certain games such as cribbage

Cribbage

Cribbage, or crib, is a card game traditionally for two players, but commonly played with three, four or more, that involves playing and grouping cards in combinations which gain points...

 or dominoes, played for small stakes. In recent decades the game of pool

Blackball (pool)

Blackball is a pool game that is popular in the United Kingdom, Ireland, several Western European nations, Australia and some other countries. In the UK and Ireland it is usually called simply "pool"...

 (both the British and American versions) has increased in popularity as well as other table based games such as snooker

Snooker

Snooker is a cue sport that is played on a green baize-covered table with pockets in each of the four corners and in the middle of each of the long side cushions. A regular table is . It is played using a cue and snooker balls: one white , 15 worth one point each, and six balls of different :...

 or Table Football

Table football

Table football, also known as gitoni or foosball, is a table-top game and sport that is loosely based on association football.-Names:...

 also becoming common.

Increasingly, more modern games such as video games and slot machine

Slot machine

A slot machine , informally fruit machine , the slots , poker machine or "pokies" or simply slot is a casino gambling machine with three or more reels which spin when a button is pushed...

s are provided. Many pubs also hold special events, from tournament

Tournament

A tournament is a competition involving a relatively large number of competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses:...

s of the aforementioned games to karaoke

Karaoke

is a form of interactive entertainment or video game in which amateur singers sing along with recorded music using a microphone and public address system. The music is typically a well-known pop song minus the lead vocal. Lyrics are usually displayed on a video screen, along with a moving symbol,...

 nights to pub quiz

Pub quiz

A pub quiz is a quiz held in a public house. These events are also called Quiz Nights or Trivia Nights and may be held in other settings. Pub quizzes are still extremely popular and may attract people to a pub who are not found there on other days. The pub quiz is a modern example of a pub game...

zes. Some play pop music and hip-hop (dance bar), or show football

Football (soccer)

Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...

 and rugby union

Rugby union

Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...

 on big screen televisions (sports bar). Shove ha'penny

Shove ha'penny

Shove ha'penny , also known in ancestral form as shoffe-grote ['shove-groat' in Modern English], slype groat ['slip groat'], and slide-thrift, is a pub game in the shuffleboard family, played predominantly in the United Kingdom...

 and Bat and trap

Bat and trap

Bat and trap, also known as knurl and spell is an English ball game related to cricket and played at country pubs in the county of Kent....

 were also popular in pubs south of London.

Many pubs in the UK also have football teams composed of regular customers. Many of these teams are in leagues that play matches on Sundays, hence the term "Sunday League Football

Sunday league football

Sunday league football is a term used in the United Kingdom to describe those association football leagues which play on Sunday, as opposed to the more usual Saturday. These leagues tend to be lower standard amateur competitions, whose players may have less ability, or less time to devote to...

". Bowling

Bowling

Bowling Bowling Bowling (1375–1425; late Middle English bowle, variant of boule Bowling (1375–1425; late Middle English bowle, variant of boule...

 is also found in association with pubs in some parts of the country and the local team will play matches against teams invited from elsewhere on the pub's bowling green.

Pubs may be venues for pub song

Pub song

In English popular culture, the "traditional" pub songs typified by the Cockney "knees up" mostly come from the classics of the music hall, along with numbers from film, the stage and other forms of popular music....

s and live music. During the 1970s pubs provided an outlet for a number of bands, such as Kilburn and the High Roads

Kilburn and the High Roads

Kilburn and the High Roads were a British rock and roll band formed by Ian Dury in 1970, and was the first band formed by Dury. The band released two studio albums and had one compilation, and separated in 1977 when Dury left to form the more prominent band The Blockheads.- History :Dury formed...

, Dr. Feelgood

Dr. Feelgood

Dr. Feelgood may refer to:In music:*Dr. Feelgood , an album by American band Mötley Crüe**"Dr. Feelgood" , a single and the title track from that album*"Dr. Feel Good", a song by Travie McCoy on the album Lazarus...

 and The Kursaal Flyers

The Kursaal Flyers

The Kursaal Flyers were a British pop and country music band, formed in Southend-on-Sea in 1973, who "bridged the gap between pub rock and power pop".-Original members:*Paul Shuttleworth , vocals...

, who formed a musical genre called Pub rock

Pub rock (UK)

Pub rock was a rock music genre that developed in the mid 1970s in the United Kingdom. A back-to-basics movement, pub rock was a reaction against progressive and glam rock. Although short-lived, pub rock was notable for rejecting stadium venues and for returning live rock to the small pubs and...

 that was a precursor to Punk music.

Food

Traditionally pubs in England were drinking establishments and little emphasis was placed on the serving of food, other than "bar snacks

Snack food

A snack is a portion of food oftentimes smaller than that of a regular meal, that is generally eaten between meals. Snacks come in a variety of forms including packaged and processed foods and items made from fresh ingredients at home....

", such as pork scratchings, and pickled egg

Pickled egg

Pickled eggs are hard boiled eggs preserved by pickling.After the eggs are hard boiled the shell is removed and they are submerged in a solution of vinegar, salt, spices, and other seasonings. Recipes vary from the traditional brine solution used for pickles to other solutions which can impart a...

s, along with salted crisps and peanut

Peanut

The peanut, or groundnut , is a species in the legume or "bean" family , so it is not a nut. The peanut was probably first cultivated in the valleys of Peru. It is an annual herbaceous plant growing tall...

s which helped to increase beer sales. If a pub served meals they were usually basic cold dishes such as a ploughman's lunch

Ploughman's lunch

A ploughman's lunch is a cold snack or meal originating in the United Kingdom, served in pubs, sometimes eaten in a sandwich form, composed of cheese ; often cooked ham slices, pickle , apples, pickled onions, salad leaves, bread...

. In South East England

South East England

South East England is one of the nine official regions of England, designated in 1994 and adopted for statistical purposes in 1999. It consists of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, East Sussex, Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Kent, Oxfordshire, Surrey and West Sussex...

 (especially London) it was common until recent times for vendors selling cockles

Cockle (bivalve)

Cockle is the common name for a group of small, edible, saltwater clams, marine bivalve molluscs in the family Cardiidae.Various species of cockles live in sandy sheltered beaches throughout the world....

, whelk

Whelk

Whelk, also spelled welk or even "wilks", is a common name used to mean one or more kinds of sea snail. The species, genera and families referred to using this common name vary a great deal from one geographic area to another...

s, mussels and other shellfish

Shellfish

Shellfish is a culinary and fisheries term for exoskeleton-bearing aquatic invertebrates used as food, including various species of molluscs, crustaceans, and echinoderms. Although most kinds of shellfish are harvested from saltwater environments, some kinds are found only in freshwater...

, to sell to customers during the evening and at closing time. Many mobile shellfish stalls would set up near pubs, a practice that continues in London's East End.

In the 1950s some British pubs would offer "a pie and a pint", with hot individual steak and ale pies made easily on the premises by the landlord's wife. In the 1960s and 1970s this developed into the then-fashionable "chicken in a basket", a portion of roast chicken with chips, served on a napkin, in a wicker basket. Quality dropped but variety increased with the introduction of microwave ovens and freezer food. 'Pub grub' expanded to include British food items such as steak and ale pie, shepherd's pie

Shepherd's pie

Cottage pie or shepherd's pie is a meat pie with a crust of mashed potato.The term cottage pie is known to have been in use in 1791, when the potato was being introduced as an edible crop affordable for the poor Cottage pie or shepherd's pie is a meat pie with a crust of mashed potato.The term...

, fish and chips

Fish and chips

Fish and chips is a popular take-away food in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and Canada...

, bangers and mash

Bangers and mash

Bangers and mash, also known as sausages and mash, is a traditional English dish made of mashed potatoes and sausages, the latter of which may be one of a variety of flavoured sausage made of pork or beef or a Cumberland sausage....

, Sunday roast

Sunday roast

The Sunday roast is a traditional British main meal served on Sundays , consisting of roasted meat, roast potato or mashed potato, with accompaniments such as Yorkshire pudding, stuffing, vegetables and gravy....

, ploughman's lunch

Ploughman's lunch

A ploughman's lunch is a cold snack or meal originating in the United Kingdom, served in pubs, sometimes eaten in a sandwich form, composed of cheese ; often cooked ham slices, pickle , apples, pickled onions, salad leaves, bread...

, and pasties

Pasty

A pasty , sometimes known as a pastie or British pasty in the United States, is a filled pastry case, associated in particular with Cornwall in Great Britain. It is made by placing the uncooked filling on a flat pastry circle, and folding it to wrap the filling, crimping the edge at the side or top...

. In addition, dishes such as burgers

Hamburger

A hamburger is a sandwich consisting of a cooked patty of ground meat usually placed inside a sliced bread roll...

, lasagne and chilli con carne are often served.

Since the 1990s food has become more important as part of a pub's trade, and today most pubs serve lunches and dinner

Dinner

Dinner is usually the name of the main meal of the day. Depending upon culture, dinner may be the second, third or fourth meal of the day. Originally, though, it referred to the first meal of the day, eaten around noon, and is still occasionally used for a noontime meal, if it is a large or main...

s at the table in addition to (or instead of) snacks consumed at the bar. They may have a separate dining room. Some pubs serve meals to a higher standard, to match good restaurant

Restaurant

A restaurant is an establishment which prepares and serves food and drink to customers in return for money. Meals are generally served and eaten on premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services...

 standards; these are sometimes termed gastropubs.

Gastropub

A gastropub

Gastropub

Gastropub or Gastrolounge refers to a bar and restaurant that serves high-end beer and food.The term gastropub, a portmanteau of gastronomy and pub, originated in England in the late 20th century. English pubs were drinking establishments and little emphasis was placed on the serving of food. If...

 concentrates on quality food. The name is a blend of pub and gastronomy

Gastronomy

Gastronomy is the art or science of food eating. Also, it can be defined as the study of food and culture, with a particular focus on gourmet cuisine...

 and was coined in 1991 when David Eyre and Mike Belben took over The Eagle pub in Clerkenwell

Clerkenwell

Clerkenwell is an area of central London in the London Borough of Islington. From 1900 to 1965 it was part of the Metropolitan Borough of Finsbury. The well after which it was named was rediscovered in 1924. The watchmaking and watch repairing trades were once of great importance...

, London. The concept of a restaurant in a pub reinvigorated both pub culture and British dining, though has occasionally attracted criticism for potentially removing the character of traditional pubs.

In 2011 The Good Food Guide suggested that the term had become an irrelevance.

Listed

CAMRA maintains a "National Inventory" of historical notability and of architecturally and decoratively notable pubs. The National Trust

National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty

The National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, usually known as the National Trust, is a conservation organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland...

 owns thirty-six public houses of historic interest including the George Inn

The George Inn, Southwark

The George, or George Inn, is a public house established in the medieval period on Borough High Street in Southwark, London. Currently owned and leased by the National Trust, it is located on the south side of the River Thames near London Bridge. It is the only surviving galleried London coaching...

, Southwark

Southwark

Southwark is a district of south London, England, and the administrative headquarters of the London Borough of Southwark. Situated east of Charing Cross, it forms one of the oldest parts of London and fronts the River Thames to the north...

, London and The Crown Liquor Saloon, Belfast

Belfast

Belfast is the capital of and largest city in Northern Ireland. By population, it is the 14th biggest city in the United Kingdom and second biggest on the island of Ireland . It is the seat of the devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly...

, Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...

.

Records

Highest
The highest pub in the United Kingdom is The Tan Hill Inn, Yorkshire

Yorkshire

Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...

, at 1732 feet (527.9 m) above sea level. The remotest pub on the British mainland is The Old Forge in the village of Inverie

Inverie

Inverie is the only village in Knoydart, Lochaber, Highland, Scotland. It is linked by ferry to Mallaig, but there is no road access to thearea from the rest of Scotland. The village is home to the remotest public house in mainland Great Britain, 'The Old Forge'.Inverie lies on the north side of...

, Lochaber

Lochaber

District of Lochaber 1975 to 1996Highland council area shown as one of the council areas of ScotlandLochaber is one of the 16 ward management areas of the Highland Council of Scotland and one of eight former local government districts of the two-tier Highland region...

, Scotland. There is no road access and it may only be reached by an 18 miles (29 km) walk over mountains, or a 7 miles (11.3 km) sea crossing. Likewise, The Berney Arms

Berney Arms

Berney Arms is a place on the north bank of the River Yare, close to Breydon Water in the English county of Norfolk. It is part of the civil parish of Reedham, is administered by the district of Broadland and lies within The Broads National Park...

 in Norfolk

Norfolk

Norfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...

 has no road access. It may be reached by foot or by boat, and also by train as it is served by the nearby Berney Arms railway station

Berney Arms railway station

Berney Arms railway station is a halt serving the remote settlement of Berney Arms in the Halvergate Marshes, in the English county of Norfolk.The station, which is from the nearest road, is the most remote station in Norfolk...

, which likewise has no road access and serves no other settlement.

Smallest
Contenders for the smallest public house in the UK include:

• The Nutshell
  Nutshell (Bury St Edmunds pub)
  The Nutshell is a pub in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, England, claiming to be the smallest pub in Britain, although this claim is challenged by several others, including the Smiths Arms at Godmanstone and the Lakeside Inn in Southport. However those two establishments while having smaller interior...
  
  , Bury St Edmunds
• The Lakeside Inn, Southport
  Southport
  Southport is a seaside town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in Merseyside, England. During the 2001 census Southport was recorded as having a population of 90,336, making it the eleventh most populous settlement in North West England...
  
  
• The Little Gem, Aylesford, Kent
• The Smiths Arms, Godmanstone
  Godmanstone
  Godmanstone is a village in west Dorset, England, situated in the Cerne Valley four miles north of Dorchester and south of Cerne Abbas. The village has a population of 144 in about 60 homes....
  
  , Dorset
• The Signal Box Inn
  The Signal Box Inn
  The Signal Box Inn is a public house in the seaside resort of Cleethorpes, United Kingdom. It was opened in August 2006 and is a contender for the smallest pub in the world.-Details:...
  
  , Cleethorpes
  Cleethorpes
  Cleethorpes is a town and unparished area in North East Lincolnshire, England, situated on the estuary of the Humber. It has a population of 31,853 and is a seaside resort.- History :...
  
  

The list includes a small number of parlour pubs, one of which is the Sun Inn

Sun Inn

The Sun Inn is a Grade II listed, National Inventory listed parlour pub in Leintwardine, Herefordshire, UK.The 200+ year old establishment, one of the UK's last remaining parlour pubs, had been owned and operated by resident Flossie Lane, who was born in the Sun Inn in 1914, and took over ownership...

, in Herefordshire.

Largest
The largest public house in the UK is The Moon Under Water

The Moon Under Water (public house)

The Moon Under Water is a public house situated on Deansgate in Manchester, in the building of a former cinema. The pub, which is and can hold 1700 customers has been noted by the Guinness Book of Records as being the largest in Britain...

, Manchester

Manchester

Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...

; as with many Wetherspoons

Wetherspoons

J D Wetherspoon plc is a British pub chain based in Watford. Founded as a single pub in 1979 by Tim Martin, the company now owns 815 outlets. The chain champions cask ale, low prices, long opening hours, and no music. The company also operates the Lloyds No...

 it is in a converted cinema.

Oldest
A number of pubs claim to be the oldest surviving establishment in the United Kingdom, although in several cases original buildings have been demolished and replaced on the same site. Others are ancient buildings that saw uses other than as a pub during their history. Ye Olde Fighting Cocks

Ye Olde Fighting Cocks

Ye Olde Fighting Cocks is a public house in St Albans, Hertfordshire, which is one of several that lay claim to being the oldest in England. It currently holds the official Guinness Book of Records title, but Ye Olde Man & Scythe in Bolton, Greater Manchester has claimed it is older by some 234 years...

 in St Albans

St Albans

St Albans is a city in southern Hertfordshire, England, around north of central London, which forms the main urban area of the City and District of St Albans. It is a historic market town, and is now a sought-after dormitory town within the London commuter belt...

, Hertfordshire, holds the Guinness World Record for the oldest pub in England, as it is an 11th century structure on an 8th century site. Ye Olde Trip To Jerusalem

Ye Olde Trip To Jerusalem

Ye Olde Trip To Jerusalem in Nottingham is one of the 20 public houses which claim to be the oldest drinking establishment in England. Its painted sign states that it was established in 1189 AD...

 in Nottingham

Nottingham

Nottingham is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England. It is located in the ceremonial county of Nottinghamshire and represents one of eight members of the English Core Cities Group...

 is claimed to be the "oldest inn in England". It has a claimed date of 1189, based on the fact it is constructed on the site of the Nottingham Castle

Nottingham Castle

Nottingham Castle is a castle in Nottingham, England. It is located in a commanding position on a natural promontory known as "'Castle Rock'", with cliffs high to the south and west. In the Middle Ages it was a major royal fortress and occasional royal residence...

 brewhouse; the present building dates from around 1650. Likewise, The Nags Head, Burntwood

Burntwood

Burntwood is a town in Staffordshire, England, lying in the Cannock Chase area approximately west of Lichfield. The town had a population of 25,674 at the time of the 2001 census and forms part of Lichfield district. The town forms one of the largest urbanised parishes in England. Samuel Johnson...

 only dates back to the 16th century, but there has been a pub on the site since at least 1086, as it is mentioned in the Domesday Book

Domesday Book

Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...

.
There is archaeological evidence that parts of the foundations of 'The Old Ferryboat Inn', Holywell, Cambridgeshire

Holywell, Cambridgeshire

Holywell is a village in the Huntingdonshire district of Cambridgeshire), England. It is half a mile south of Needingworth, and east of St Ives.-The holy well:...

, may date to AD 460, and there is evidence of ale being served as early as AD 560.

The Bingley Arms

The Bingley Arms

The Bingley Arms is an old pub in Bardsey, Leeds, which was originally called The Priests Inn.It is claimed to be the oldest pub in Britain, with a known history dating back to AD 953 and evidence suggesting it could date to AD 905...

, Leeds

Leeds

Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...

, is claimed to date to 905 AD. Ye Olde Salutation Inn

Ye Olde Salutation Inn

Ye Olde Salutation Inn is a public house dating from around 1240 that lays claim to being the oldest in Nottingham.-History:...

 in Nottingham dates from 1240, although the building served as a tannery and a private residence before becoming an inn sometime before the English Civil War

English Civil War

The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists...

. The Adam and Eve in Norwich

Norwich

Norwich is a city in England. It is the regional administrative centre and county town of Norfolk. During the 11th century, Norwich was the largest city in England after London, and one of the most important places in the kingdom...

 was first recorded in 1249, when it was an alehouse for the workers constructing nearby Norwich Cathedral

Norwich Cathedral

Norwich Cathedral is a cathedral located in Norwich, Norfolk, dedicated to the Holy and Undivided Trinity. Formerly a Catholic church, it has belonged to the Church of England since the English Reformation....

. Ye Olde Man & Scythe in Bolton

Bolton

Bolton is a town in Greater Manchester, in the North West of England. Close to the West Pennine Moors, it is north west of the city of Manchester. Bolton is surrounded by several smaller towns and villages which together form the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, of which Bolton is the...

 is mentioned by name in a charter of 1251, but the current building is dated 1631. Its cellars are the only surviving part of the older structure.

Cultural associations

Inns and taverns feature throughout English literature and poetry, from The Tabard Inn

The Tabard

The Tabard, an inn that stood on the east side of Borough High Street in Southwark, was established in 1307, when the abbot of Hyde purchased the land to construct a hostel for himself and his brethren, when business took them to London, as well as an inn to accommodate the numerous pilgrims headed...

 in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales onwards.

The highwayman Dick Turpin

Dick Turpin

Richard "Dick" Turpin was an English highwayman whose exploits were romanticised following his execution in York for horse theft. Turpin may have followed his father's profession as a butcher early in life, but by the early 1730s he had joined a gang of deer thieves, and later became a poacher,...

 used the Swan Inn at Wroughton-on-the-Green in Buckinghamshire

Buckinghamshire

Buckinghamshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan home county in South East England. The county town is Aylesbury, the largest town in the ceremonial county is Milton Keynes and largest town in the non-metropolitan county is High Wycombe....

 as his base. In the 1920s John Fothergill (1876–1957) was the innkeeper of the Spread Eagle in Thame

Thame

Thame is a town and civil parish in Oxfordshire, about southwest of the Buckinghamshire town of Aylesbury. It derives its toponym from the River Thame which flows past the north side of the town....

, Berkshire, and published his autobiography: An Innkeeper's Diary (London: Chatto & Windus, 1931). During his idiosyncratic occupancy many famous people came to stay, such as H. G. Wells

H. G. Wells

Herbert George Wells was an English author, now best known for his work in the science fiction genre. He was also a prolific writer in many other genres, including contemporary novels, history, politics and social commentary, even writing text books and rules for war games...

. United States president George W. Bush

George W. Bush

George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....

 fulfilled his lifetime ambition of visiting a 'genuine British pub' during his November 2003 state visit to the UK when he had lunch and a pint of non-alcoholic lager with British Prime Minister

Prime minister

A prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. In many systems, the prime minister selects and may dismiss other members of the cabinet, and allocates posts to members within the government. In most systems, the prime...

 Tony Blair

Tony Blair

Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...

 at the Dun Cow

Dun Cow

The dun cow is a common motif in English folklore. "Dun" is a dull shade of brownish grey.-Dunsmore Heath:The Dun Cow of Dunsmore Heath was a savage beast slain by Guy of Warwick...

 pub in Sedgefield

Sedgefield

Sedgefield is a small town and civil parish in County Durham, England. It has a population of 4,534.Sedgefield has attracted particular attention as the Member of Parliament for the wider Sedgefield constituency was the former Prime Minister Tony Blair; he was the area's MP from 1983 to 2008,...

, County Durham

County Durham

County Durham is a ceremonial county and unitary district in north east England. The county town is Durham. The largest settlement in the ceremonial county is the town of Darlington...

.

London
Many of London's pubs are known to have been used by famous people, but in some cases, such as the association between Samuel Johnson

Samuel Johnson

Samuel Johnson , often referred to as Dr. Johnson, was an English author who made lasting contributions to English literature as a poet, essayist, moralist, literary critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer...

 and Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, this is speculative, based on little more than the fact that the person is known to have lived nearby. However, Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens

Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...

 is known to have visited the Cheshire Cheese, the Prospect of Whitby, Ye Olde Cock Tavern

Ye Olde Cock Tavern

Ye Olde Cock Tavern is a public house on London's Fleet Street and is part of the Taylor Walker Pubs group.Originally built before the 17th century, it was rebuilt, including the interior , on the other side of the road in the 1880s when a branch of the Bank of England was built where it...

 and many others. Samuel Pepys

Samuel Pepys

Samuel Pepys FRS, MP, JP, was an English naval administrator and Member of Parliament who is now most famous for the diary he kept for a decade while still a relatively young man...

 is also associated with the Prospect of Whitby and the Cock Tavern.

The Fitzroy Tavern

Fitzroy Tavern

The Fitzroy Tavern is a public house situated at 16 Charlotte Street in the Fitzrovia district of central London, England, to which it gives its name.It is currently owned by the Samuel Smith Brewery...

 is a public house situated at 16 Charlotte Street

Charlotte Street

Charlotte Street is a well-known street in Fitzrovia, central London, England. The southern half of the street has many restaurants and cafes, and a lively nightlife during the evening; while the northern part of the street is more mixed in character and includes the large office building of the...

 in the Fitzrovia

Fitzrovia

Fitzrovia is a neighbourhood in central London, near London's West End lying partly in the London Borough of Camden and partly in the City of Westminster ; and situated between Marylebone and Bloomsbury and north of Soho. It is characterised by its mixed-use of residential, business, retail,...

 district, to which it gives its name. It became famous (or according to others, infamous) during a period spanning the 1920s to the mid 1950s as a meeting place for many of London's artist

Artist

An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...

s, intellectual

Intellectual

An intellectual is a person who uses intelligence and critical or analytical reasoning in either a professional or a personal capacity.- Terminology and endeavours :"Intellectual" can denote four types of persons:...

s and bohemian

Bohemianism

Bohemianism is the practice of an unconventional lifestyle, often in the company of like-minded people, with few permanent ties, involving musical, artistic or literary pursuits...

s such as Dylan Thomas

Dylan Thomas

Dylan Marlais Thomas was a Welsh poet and writer, Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 11 January 2008. who wrote exclusively in English. In addition to poetry, he wrote short stories and scripts for film and radio, which he often performed himself...

, Augustus John

Augustus John

Augustus Edwin John OM, RA, was a Welsh painter, draughtsman, and etcher. For a short time around 1910, he was an important exponent of Post-Impressionism in the United Kingdom....

, and George Orwell

George Orwell

Eric Arthur Blair , better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist...

. Several establishments in Soho

Soho

Soho is an area of the City of Westminster and part of the West End of London. Long established as an entertainment district, for much of the 20th century Soho had a reputation for sex shops as well as night life and film industry. Since the early 1980s, the area has undergone considerable...

, London, have associations with well-known, post-war literary and artistic figures, including the Pillars of Hercules

Pillars of Hercules (pub)

The Pillars of Hercules is a pub in Greek Street, Soho, London. Most of what exists now was built around 1910, but the pub dates back to 1733 . Dickens referred to it in A Tale Of Two Cities, and the road at the side of the pub through the arch is named Manette Street, after Dr Manette, one of the...

, The Colony Room

The Colony Room

The Colony Room was a private members' drinking club for artists and other creative people in Dean Street, Soho, London. It gathered a reputation akin to famous clubs of the past such as the Kit-Cat Club. According to Anthony Haden-Guest, it is "one of the fiercely eccentric clubs that make all the...

 and the Coach and Horses. The Canonbury Tavern, Canonbury

Canonbury

Canonbury is a residential district in the London Borough of Islington in the north of London. It is roughly in the area between Essex Road, Upper Street and Cross Street and either side of St Paul's Road....

, was the prototype for Orwell's ideal English pub, The Moon Under Water

The Moon Under Water

"The Moon Under Water" is a 1946 essay by George Orwell, originally published in the Evening Standard, in which he provided a detailed description of his ideal public house, the fictitious Moon Under Water.- Summary :...

.

The Red Lion in Parliament Square

Parliament Square

Parliament Square is a square outside the northwest end of the Palace of Westminster in London. It features a large open green area in the middle, with a group of trees to its west. It contains statues of famous statesmen and is the scene of rallies and protests, as well as being a tourist...

 is close to the Palace of Westminster

Palace of Westminster

The Palace of Westminster, also known as the Houses of Parliament or Westminster Palace, is the meeting place of the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom—the House of Lords and the House of Commons...

 and is consequently used by political journalists and Members of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

. The pub is equipped with a Division bell

Division bell

A division bell is a bell rung in or around a parliament to signal a division and thus call all members of the chamber so affected to vote in it.- In the United Kingdom :...

 that summons MPs back to the chamber when they are required to take part in a vote. The Punch Bowl, Mayfair

The Punch Bowl, Mayfair

The Punch Bowl, at 41 Farm Street, Mayfair, is a London public house, dating from circa 1750. It is listed as Grade II by English Heritage. It is a Georgian building and, although altered over the years, retains many period features including a dog-leg staircase, internal cornicing and dado...

 was at one time jointly owned by Madonna

Madonna (entertainer)

Madonna is an American singer-songwriter, actress and entrepreneur. Born in Bay City, Michigan, she moved to New York City in 1977 to pursue a career in modern dance. After performing in the music groups Breakfast Club and Emmy, she released her debut album in 1983...

 and Guy Ritchie

Guy Ritchie

Guy Stuart Ritchie is an English screenwriter and film maker who directed Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch, Revolver, RocknRolla and Sherlock Holmes.-Early life:...

 and is known for the number of present-day celebrities that have patronised it. The Coleherne public house in Earls Court

Earls Court

Earls Court is a district in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in London, England. It is an inner-city district centred on Earl's Court Road and surrounding streets, located 3.1 miles west south-west of Charing Cross. It borders the sub-districts of South Kensington to the East, West...

 was a well-known gay pub from the 1950s. It attracted many well-known patrons, such as Freddie Mercury

Freddie Mercury

Freddie Mercury was a British musician, singer and songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist of the rock band Queen. As a performer, he was known for his flamboyant stage persona and powerful vocals over a four-octave range...

, Kenny Everett

Kenny Everett

Kenny Everett was an English comedian, radio DJ and television entertainer. Born Maurice James Christopher Cole, Everett is best known for his career as a radio DJ and for the Kenny Everett television shows.-Early life:...

 and Rudolph Nureyev. It was also used by the serial-killer Colin Ireland

Colin Ireland

Colin Ireland is a British serial killer known as the "Gay Slayer" because he specifically murdered gay men. His victims were five men....

 to pick-up victims.
In 1966 The Blind Beggar in Whitechapel

Whitechapel

Whitechapel is a built-up inner city district in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, London, England. It is located east of Charing Cross and roughly bounded by the Bishopsgate thoroughfare on the west, Fashion Street on the north, Brady Street and Cavell Street on the east and The Highway on the...

 became infamous as the scene of a murder committed by gangster Reggie Kray. The Ten Bells

Ten Bells (public house)

The Ten Bells is a Victorian public house at the corner of Commercial Street and Fournier Street in Spitalfields in the East End of London. It is notable for its association with two victims of Jack the Ripper; Annie Chapman and Mary Kelly....

 is associated with several of the victims of Jack the Ripper

Jack the Ripper

"Jack the Ripper" is the best-known name given to an unidentified serial killer who was active in the largely impoverished areas in and around the Whitechapel district of London in 1888. The name originated in a letter, written by someone claiming to be the murderer, that was disseminated in the...

. In 1955, Ruth Ellis

Ruth Ellis

Ruth Ellis , née Neilson, was the last woman to be executed in the United Kingdom. She was convicted of the murder of her lover, David Blakely, and hanged at Holloway Prison, London, by Albert Pierrepoint.-Biography:...

, the last woman executed in the United Kingdom, shot David Blakely as he emerged from The Magdala in South Hill Park

South Hill Park (London street)

South Hill Park is a street in the Hampstead district of London. It is within the London Borough of Camden, and some of its houses overlook Hampstead Heath..-Transport links:...

, Hampstead

Hampstead

Hampstead is an area of London, England, north-west of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Camden in Inner London, it is known for its intellectual, liberal, artistic, musical and literary associations and for Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland...

, the bullet holes can still be seen in the walls outside. It is said that Vladimir Lenin

Vladimir Lenin

Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and communist politician who led the October Revolution of 1917. As leader of the Bolsheviks, he headed the Soviet state during its initial years , as it fought to establish control of Russia in the Russian Civil War and worked to create a...

 and a young Joseph Stalin

Joseph Stalin

Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...

 met in the Crown and Anchor pub (now known as The Crown Tavern) on Clerkenwell Green

Clerkenwell

Clerkenwell is an area of central London in the London Borough of Islington. From 1900 to 1965 it was part of the Metropolitan Borough of Finsbury. The well after which it was named was rediscovered in 1924. The watchmaking and watch repairing trades were once of great importance...

 when the latter was visiting London in 1903.

The Angel, Islington

The Angel, Islington

Angel is a district of London, England, and part of the London Borough of Islington. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London.-History:...

 was formerly a coaching inn

Coaching inn

In Europe, from approximately the mid-17th century for a period of about 200 years, the coaching inn, sometimes called a coaching house or staging inn, was a vital part of the inland transport infrastructure, as an inn serving coach travelers...

, the first on the route northwards out of London, where Thomas Paine

Thomas Paine

Thomas "Tom" Paine was an English author, pamphleteer, radical, inventor, intellectual, revolutionary, and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States...

 is believed to have written much of The Rights of Man. It was mentioned by Charles Dickens, became a Lyons Corner House, and is now a Co-operative Bank

Co-operative Bank

The Co-operative Bank plc is a commercial bank in the United Kingdom and Guernsey, with its headquarters in Manchester.The bank markets itself as an ethical bank, and refuses to invest in companies involved in the arms trade, global climate change, genetic engineering, animal testing and use of...

. It is also on the board in the British version of the board game Monopoly

Monopoly (game)

Marvin Gardens, the leading yellow property on the board shown, is actually a misspelling of the original location name, Marven Gardens. The misspelling was said to be introduced by Charles Todd and passed on when his home-made Monopoly board was copied by Charles Darrow and thence to Parker...

.

Oxford and Cambridge
The Eagle and Child

The Eagle and Child

The Eagle and Child is a pub in St Giles', Oxford, England which is owned by St. John's College, Oxford. The pub had been part of an endowment belonging to University College since the 17th century. It has associations with the Inklings writers' group which included J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S...

 and the Lamb and Flag, Oxford, were regular meeting places of the Inklings

Inklings

The Inklings was an informal literary discussion group associated with the University of Oxford, England, for nearly two decades between the early 1930s and late 1949. The Inklings were literary enthusiasts who praised the value of narrative in fiction, and encouraged the writing of fantasy...

, a writers' group which included J. R. R. Tolkien

J. R. R. Tolkien

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor, best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.Tolkien was Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College,...

 and C. S. Lewis

C. S. Lewis

Clive Staples Lewis , commonly referred to as C. S. Lewis and known to his friends and family as "Jack", was a novelist, academic, medievalist, literary critic, essayist, lay theologian and Christian apologist from Belfast, Ireland...

. The Eagle in Cambridge is where Francis Crick

Francis Crick

Francis Harry Compton Crick OM FRS was an English molecular biologist, biophysicist, and neuroscientist, and most noted for being one of two co-discoverers of the structure of the DNA molecule in 1953, together with James D. Watson...

 interrupted patrons' lunchtime on 28 February 1953 to announce that he and James Watson

James D. Watson

James Dewey Watson is an American molecular biologist, geneticist, and zoologist, best known as one of the co-discoverers of the structure of DNA in 1953 with Francis Crick...

 had "discovered the secret of life" after they had come up with their proposal for the structure of DNA

DNA

Deoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms . The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in...

. The anecdote is related in Watson's book The Double Helix

The Double Helix

The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA is an autobiographical account of the discovery of the double helix structure of DNA written by James D. Watson and published in 1968. It was and remains a controversial account...

. and commemorated with a blue plaque on the outside wall.

Television soap operas
The major soap operas on British television each feature a pub, and these pubs have become household names. The Rovers Return is the pub in Coronation Street

Coronation Street

Coronation Street is a British soap opera set in Weatherfield, a fictional town in Greater Manchester based on Salford. Created by Tony Warren, Coronation Street was first broadcast on 9 December 1960...

, the British soap broadcast on ITV

ITV

ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...

. The Queen Vic

The Queen Victoria

The Queen Victoria is a fictional Victorian public house in the BBC soap opera, EastEnders. It has the fictional address of 46 Albert Square, Walford, London E20.-Appearance and development:...

 (short for the Queen Victoria

Victoria of the United Kingdom

Victoria was the monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. From 1 May 1876, she used the additional title of Empress of India....

) is the pub in EastEnders

EastEnders

EastEnders is a British television soap opera, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 19 February 1985 and continuing to today. EastEnders storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional London Borough of Walford in the East End...

, the major soap on BBC One, while The Bull in the Radio 4 soap opera The Archers

The Archers

The Archers is a long-running British soap opera broadcast on the BBC's main spoken-word channel, Radio 4. It was originally billed as "an everyday story of country folk", but is now described on its Radio 4 web site as "contemporary drama in a rural setting"...

and the Woolpack in ITV's Emmerdale

Emmerdale

Emmerdale, is a long-running British soap opera set in Emmerdale , a fictional village in the Yorkshire Dales. Created by Kevin Laffan, Emmerdale was first broadcast on 16 October 1972...

are also important meeting points. The sets of each of the three major television soap operas have been visited by some of the members of the royal family, including Queen Elizabeth II

Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom

Elizabeth II is the constitutional monarch of 16 sovereign states known as the Commonwealth realms: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize,...

. The centrepiece of each visit was a trip into the Rovers, the Queen Vic, or the Woolpack to be offered a drink.

Pubs outside Great Britain

Although 'British' pubs found outside of Britain

Great Britain

Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...

 and its former colonies are often themed bars owing little to the original British public house, a number of 'true' pubs may be found around the world.

In Denmark—a country, like Britain, with a long tradition of brewing—a number of pubs have opened which eschew "theming", and which instead focus on the business of providing carefully conditioned beer, often independent of any particular brewery or chain, in an environment which would not be unfamiliar to a British pub-goer. Some import British cask ale, rather than beer in kegs, in order to provide the full British real ale experience to their customers. This newly established Danish interest in British cask beer and the British pub tradition is reflected by the fact that some 56 British cask beers were available at the 2008 European Beer Festival in Copenhagen

Copenhagen

Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...

, which was attended by more than 20,000 people.

In Ireland, pubs are known for their atmosphere or 'craic'. In Irish, a pub is referred to as teach tábhairne ('tavernhouse') or teach óil ('drinkinghouse'). Live music, either sessions of traditional Irish music or varieties of modern popular music, is frequently featured in the pubs of Ireland. Pubs in Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...

 are largely identical to their counterparts in the Republic of Ireland

Republic of Ireland

Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...

 except for the lack of spirit grocers. A side effect of 'The Troubles

The Troubles

The Troubles was a period of ethno-political conflict in Northern Ireland which spilled over at various times into England, the Republic of Ireland, and mainland Europe. The duration of the Troubles is conventionally dated from the late 1960s and considered by many to have ended with the Belfast...

' was that the lack of a tourist industry meant that a higher proportion of traditional bars have survived the wholesale refitting of Irish pub interiors in the 'English style' in the 1950s and 1960s. This refitting was driven by the need to expand seating areas to accommodate the growing numbers of tourists, and was a direct consequence of the growing dependence of the Irish economy on tourism.

See also

• Boteco
• Botequim
  Botequim
  Boteco , or Botequim / Butiquim are terms derived from the Portuguese of Portugal "botica", which derives from the Greek "Apotheke", which means storage, grocery store or where goods were sold by retail..In Portugal the "boteco" was a warehouse or store where groceries and offal were sold...
  
  
• Cider house
  Cider house
  A cider house is an establishment, often little more than a room in a farmhouse or cottage, that sells alcoholic cider for consumption on the premises. Historically, some cider houses also sold cider "to go", for consumption off the premises.-History:...
  
  
• List of award-winning pubs in London
• Pub crawl
  Pub crawl
  A pub crawl is the act of one or more people drinking in multiple pubs or bars in a single night, normally walking or busing to each one between drinking.-Origin of the term:...
  
  

People

• Evan Lewis (Los Angeles), city councilman who disfavored the painting of beer parlor windows to block the view from the street, 1934

Further reading

• Burke, Thomas (1927) The Book of the Inn: being two hundred pictures of the English inn from the earliest times to the coming of the railway hotel; selected and edited by Thomas Burke. London: Constable
• Douch, H. L. (1966) Old Cornish Inns and their place in the social history of the County. Truro: D. Bradford Barton
• Martin, John (1993) Stanley Chew's Pub Signs: a celebration of the art and heritage of British pub signs. Worcester: John Martin ISBN 1 85421 225 7
• Monson-Fitzjohn, G. J. (1926) Quaint Signs of Olde Inns. London: H. Jenkins (reissued by Senate, London, 1994 ISBN 1-85958-028-9)
• Richardson, A. E. (1934) The Old Inns of England. London: B. T. Batsford

External links

• 15 drunk foods/bar foods from around the world
• A selection of beer related material including Licensing Acts of (1552) (1553) (1606-c. 4) (1606-c. 5) (1604) (1625) (1828 c. 46) (1828 c. 61) (1830) (1834) (1840) (1842) (1869) (1870) (1872) (1902) (1904) and more
• A Brief History of the British Pub
• Pubs