Ask me directions and the chances are that the landmarks I
will use to guide you with will be pubs. "The Post Office? Turn right at
The Flying Horse, left at The Red Lion and it's opposite The Railway
Tavern," that sort of thing. Except today The Flying Horse is a Tesco
Metro, The Red Lion is a Sainsbury's Local and The Railway Tavern is a block of
flats that resemble an art deco battleship and has a pretentious name like The
Matrix or Prometheus Court, because Britain's pubs are closing at a rate of 31
per week according to the Campaign For Real Ale (CAMRA). Britain had over 67,000 pubs as recently as
1982; by 2013 that number had fallen to 48,000.[1]
Remarkably though, the names of many pubs live on long after they close. In
Dagenham people still refer to "the Fiddlers roundabout" even though
the roundabout has been replaced by traffic lights and The Merry Fiddlers pub
closed in 1992.
 |
| It might seem a cliché, but there are plenty of fine old inns like this, but for how long? |
The supermarkets are voracious converters of pubs into small
versions of their major stores. Tesco have 1,600 Express stores and 190 Metro
outlets and it seems that almost all of them are located in what were once
pubs. In walking distance of my home, The Railway, The Cherry Tree, The Beacon,
and The Marlborough have all converted to Tesco in recent years and there are
doubtless more that I have not thought of. It isn't just Tesco, Sainsbury's do
it too. They recently bought and refurbished the Elm Park Hotel and converted
it into a supermarket despite a campaign by local residents who were keen to
save the pub. Ironically not so many years ago the local residents were
campaigning for the pub's closure as it had something of a reputation.
 |
| The Marlborough in Romford, now a Tesco express. |
Many pubs are now restaurants and there are some that have
been demolished altogether to make way
for blocks of expensive apartments, particularly in the South East where the demand
for housing is reaching absurd proportions. There are housing developments on
hospital sites, colleges and even what were once petrol stations. I appreciate
that the area around London is popular but I fear for local services and
infrastructure as a result of the rapidly increasing population.
Even more sadly there are plenty of pubs that have called
last orders for the final time, closed their doors and now sit idle and
derelict[2].
It is not uncommon to drive around and see a boarded up pub that was apparently
thriving just a few weeks before. There are many reasons for pubs closing,
economic and social. A former publican friend of mine has told me of the
unrealistic targets set by the brewers, of the changes imposed on managers that
can cause pubs to fail. In pubs like any other business ,management set targets
and if you meet or exceed them and you can bet your last penny that those
targets get increased next year. Eventually they become unreachable.
Economically pubs also suffer because supermarkets sell beers, wines and
spirits at discounted prices that many publicans cannot compete with. There is
now a changing culture in British drinking habits and people consume more at
home and less in pubs. Oh sure, of a Friday night many pubs are heaving (sadly,
a lot of the clientele are too, but that's another story), but many are
virtually deserted at other times. It is strange that the relaxation of the
licensing laws, meaning that pubs can open longer, has actually made many pubs uncompetitive.
Whereas a pub might have had to close during the afternoon previously, they can
now stay open and many probably feel obliged to even though between three in
the afternoon and six in the evening the bar staff rarely see more than a
couple of customers. There must be many publicans who keep their doors open
because they fear if they close they
will lose trade later on even though they must be losing money.
It isn't just the economic factors that account for pub
closures, demographics play a part too. The traditional East End boozer,
catering for factory workers and dockers is under threat because the customers
no longer exist. London's Docklands may be a vibrant commercial centre but the
traditional 'local' has been supplanted by upmarket bars for the office workers.
In place of the factory workers and dockers spending their wages over the bar
of The Prince Regent, we now have a very different community in much of London's
East End, for the majority of whom pub culture is alien. Faced with a local
populace who have no interest in their product, the pubs wither and die.
In my local area we have some very ancient and venerable
public houses. The Golden Lion in Romford dates back to 1440 and The Ship in
Gidea Park is over five hundred years old. Now you would hope that these incredible
old inns would carry on forever, but age is not a guarantee of permanence. Take
The Old Spotted Dog in Forest Gate, a 16th century inn that was one of Henry
VIII's hunting lodges. It was still going strong at the end of the last
century, but has now been closed for more than a decade. As a Grade II listed
building it is fortunately unlikely to be turned into flats or a supermarket,
but will probably lie abandoned and neglected for many years to come despite
the best efforts of local campaigners[3].
The Dog is in the area I described where the demographic has changed; the
continued outward spread of London's East End could mean that pubs like The
Golden Lion and The Ship eventually go the same way, although hopefully that is
many years in the future.
 |
| The Golden Lion, Romford. Photo: John Winfield |
 |
| What remains of The Old Spotted Dog |
It isn't all bad news, however. J D Wetherspoons opened
their first pub in 1979 and now have over 900 up and down the country; it is
difficult to find a High Street without one and they have opened in what were
once banks or Post Offices as well as traditional pub premises. Wetherspoons
have remarkably managed to satisfy both the casual drinker and the real ale
enthusiast, with their reasonable food and drink prices and their range of cask
ales. They do have their detractors; a blog on The Guardian's website cites the
charge that some people make against them as being " soulless, big, cheap
city-centre drinking pits, dominated by televisions and many lone, drunk men
ready to tell you where this country went wrong. " And yes, they are a bit
samey, in the same way as McDonalds and Starbucks are, but you know what you
are getting and at least they are bucking the trend and opening pubs where
others are closing, albeit that you could argue that their discounted prices
are hurting some smaller pubs.
 |
| Wetherspoons' "The Peter Cushing" in Whitstable, in what was once the town's cinema. |
 |
| The Eva Hart, another Wetherspoons pub, in Chadwell Heath. The building was previously the police station. |
I love the English pub and over the years have spent many
happy hours in many of them up and down the country. It saddens me to see so
many closing but like so many other things, the closure of England's pubs is
emblematic of the changes in our culture, society and economy. With all of the pubs that are now a Tesco I
must just make sure that the next time I walk into what I think is a pub and
try to order a pint I don't find myself walking out with a bunch of bananas and
a box of washing powder!
Cheers!
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