Very important here in the UK. However I am 57 so generation X, the kids do things differently now. So thoughts are, any non UK people experienced our pubs? Where? Views? Our cousins over the water? Do you value the social culture of pubs like Gen x?
I've been to the UK a handful of times. I enjoy trying beers I've never heard of, and the pub food is usually very good. But I haven't found the music scene in London. (One of my favorite parts of the pub scene in Ireland, where music is everywhere!) Then again, the only pub I've visited several times in London is Mabel's Tavern. (About equidistant from King's Cross and Euston Station.) But as an outsider it's hard to judge the pub's social scene. It does appear that everyone knows everyone else.
Dublin, Belfast, London and Birmingham. Some of the older pubs were great. We went to a place called Clenaghan's (north of Belfast) that supposedly had been there for 400 years or so. The ceilings were all very low (5'10" or so) but the music was great. Yes we have something similar here although to a lesser degree. My (now) wife and I used to spend a lot of time at the Lost Abbey for example and got to know everyone there.
I've been to London a couple of times. The thing that most stands out for me about the pub scene is just how popular and obligatory it is. Walking around the city, at 5:05PM, every pub has scores - sometimes hundreds - of people spilling onto the sidewalk with a pint in their hand. I guess I'm a real introvert because the last thing I want to do upon punching out is stand around on my tired feet in a busy, noisy crowd, nattering with my office mates...
So, where does one find the music scene in London? We have an "English" pub here in town, run by an actual Englishman. My musician friends have tried to get him to allow live music and he refuses. He wants people to come to his pub and talk. I don't know if that's his preference or if that's normal in the English pub scene.
The "music scene" is throughout London. That may sound flippant, but there's no single place/area for it. Sure, you have the West End for theatres and that sort of thing, but unless you're talking about actual concerts then many pubs will host live bands during the week and weekends, with some pubs specialising in certain types of music, and others having different genres on different nights. As a visitor your best bet, honestly, would be to look online for what's happening in your area. Almost everywhere in London there will be the mix of the popular, the exclusive, the cheep and cheerful, and the dives, some pubs offering free music, others requiring a ticket etc. If you're looking for a specific genre then there will still be something not too far away, I'm sure. There will also be many that have no live music at all, sometimes because that would take up valuable floor-space that could be used for drinkers! Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! There is almost certainly something for everyone, and probably not too far away. Sorry if that sounds a bit vague, but it's the case that if you can't find it then you're really not looking. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
I could never quite understand the post-work drink culture. I do know some who work in London, and they might go for a quick drink after work for two main reasons: firstly meeting up with friends who also work in the area - i.e. not their work colleagues; and secondly to avoid the rush and squeeze on the Underground and the rail network. An hour's wait in a pub could mean the difference between getting a seat or not! Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! But then I'm introvert as well, and London itself is just too crowded for my tastes. Just the idea of being crammed onto the Underground to get anywhere sends shivers down my spine.
I suppose if you are visiting from outside the UK you will go to London. Too busy for me unless you know the area.
Saturday afternoon, just me and one guy reading a book. Lots of side rooms, craft beers. Very very quiet and relaxed.
My first impulse was to think of pubs as "bars". But that's not really the case. Pubs feel more like a communal living room. I mean, you won't see children in a Texas bar. But, at least in Ireland, pubs are family friendly. Is there a difference between bars and pubs?
In the UK we don't really refer to any particular establishment as just a "bar". The closest you get are cocktail bars, or wine bars, that specialise in those things. But typically the "bar" is just the location in the establishment where the drinks are served from - whether it's in a theatre, a hotel, a pub, a nightclub etc. We do say things like "I'll meet you in the bar" if referring to a hotel, or theatre, i.e. the part of the establishment where the bar is located. But if it's a pub then we would say "I'll meet you in the pub". A pub is a type of establishment that has one or more bars, but tends to serve mainly cider/ale/beer/lager on tap (some in bottles), plus a relatively small selection of other drinks (spirits, soft drinks, wines etc). The atmosphere of pubs is also generally different, and much more "olde worlde" than your usual cocktail- or wine-bar. There's a certain style you can often associate with pubs, with regard decor, seating arrangements, etc. They also quite often serve a menu of food, although the extent, quality, and pricing of which varies massively. But then this is probably true of "bars" as well. As for being family friendly or not, that's more a matter of where the pub is located, and the clientele they want to attract. Some specifically target families (may even have a child activities in the garden) whereas others would very much be a no-go area for them. But to me it would be that the "pub" generally has a hearty and social/communal feel to it compared to a "bar". It's not a clear-cut line, and there are likely some bars that make themselves out to look more like pubs, or pubs that have gone for the modern look. Hope that helps. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
A long time ago, there were separate areas for women and men in Irish bars. The men would be in the pub, and the women would be in the "snug" - a small area where they wouldn't be seen by men to be drinking. The last time I was in Ireland, a bartender was showing me around her pub. They had a "snug" in the back, but it was almost as big as the main pub, so they called the men-only area the pub and the women-only area the bar. According to her that was common in their area (around Dublin) in the 1950s. Needless to say, when I was there (2005 or so) there were no longer any restrictions on sex - but they kept the names.
And lots of factors being blamed on the decline of them than just the diverging preferences of late Gen-Y and Gen-Z. If pubs ever caught on wildly in North America, they would be a product of corporate chains reproducing the same uniform establishments from town to town. The "social tavern" equivalent of fast-food joints and retail stores like Taco Bell, Burger King, Dollar Tree, Walmart, etc. Andy Black, head brewer at "Yorkshire Square" in Torrance, California, an authentic British-style pub: “I despise corporate pubs and corporate beer. Basically, they all look and feel middle-of-the-road, are geared for mass-market appeal, and miss all the points I like in a good pub. I cannot stand the bullshit cookie-cutter garbage the corporate places turn out. I can’t stand it that large breweries, pubcos, and such entities would treat consumers like mindless units. I think a local-focused pub with individual character will always be a better experience than anything trying to cater to tourists or a place trying to turn the pub experience into a fast-food chain model.” Since there is a rising collapse of pubs in the UK, the specter of the corporate pub might be looming overhead, if that eventually becomes the chief means of avoiding their mass extinction (i.e., business franchises supposedly being able to handle and survive the rising expenses and other challenges). Probably not, though. I assume there's a dedicated effort to maintain distinct, independent establishments (what would be called "mom and pop" businesses in the US), to avoid the cloned appearance of different villages and municipalities across the pond. Decline in Britain: The number of pubs in the UK has declined year on year, at least since 1982. Various reasons are put forward for this, such as the failure of some establishments to keep up with customer requirements. Others claim the smoking ban of 2007, intense competition from gastro-pubs, the availability of cheap alcohol in supermarkets or the general economic climate are either to blame, or are factors in the decline. Changes in demographics may be an additional factor. In 2015 the rate of pub closures came under the scrutiny of Parliament in the UK, with a promise of legislation to improve relations between owners and tenants. The Lost Pubs Project listed 42,519 closed English pubs on 6 August 2023, with photographs of over 29,000. In the fifteen years to 2017 a quarter of London's pubs had closed. The closures have been ascribed to factors such as changing tastes and a rise in the cost of beer due to applied taxes. Some London boroughs where there has been an increase in British Muslim population have seen a high amount of closures. The industry suffered a major decline from 2020, due to reduced trade during the Covid pandemic, followed by the wave of inflation that increased costs.... _
Last time we avoided all the tourist traps and went to the street markets and canals. We devote as much time to the countryside as to London.
