#124

They are. On the grounds of what used to pubs.

#125

Too many pubs and not enough houses arenā€™t connected though, need to be mass developments to catch up with housing demand, converting a few old pubs isnā€™t going to solve the problem, just loses something it would be hard to get back

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#126

Should just get some massive new build estates of pubs.

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#127

My parents ran a pub when I was young, so it breaks my heart to see local places getting gobbled up by Wetherspoons. I remember the pub was pivotal for the community during the miners strike (the pub was in a North Yorkshire village), so Iā€™ve always valued the local boozerā€™s meaning to the community. Obviously there were no mobile phones, and most of the minors had their landlines cut off as they couldnā€™t pay BT - so the pub was the only place they could communicate and get information.
My Dad used to let the miners have a tab, he kept a book behind the bar - and when they got new jobs or redundancy money, theyā€™d pay him back. Every single one of them paid back every penny.
My abiding memories of all the pubs Iā€™ve either lived above or drank in is the characters you meet. Iā€™ve often thought about writing a book about some of the people Iā€™ve met in pubs; Pistol Pete, who accidentally shot his accomplice in the knee when holding up a Post Office; Larry The Tout, who could get tickets to anything. The story of the guy who used to get stopped when he left the pit everyday and theyā€™d check the wheelbarrow he had with a cover over it. When he retired, they worked out what heā€™d been nicking - wheelbarrows. I could go onā€¦
Even now I go in a run-down village pub and I honestly nearly always come out laughing at something somebody has done or said.
We protect buildings and art - if I ever became an MP, Iā€™d table a motion to protect pubs.

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#128

Yes, his logic was that heā€™d only serve real ale and craft beer. You get the Carling-mob coming in and leaving when they canā€™t get any lager

#129

(Admittedly, I think this came from a Lord, but you knowā€¦)

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#130
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#131

Iā€™m a big fan of those old American diners that you see in films.

Unfortunately they seem to be going the same way as pubs from the look of things-

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#132

seems somewhat ridiculous to me nowadays to be paying Ā£4+ for a pint, when I could be chilling in my garden/house drinking something for Ā£0.50-Ā£1
Different with coffee as I donā€™t have a Ā£2k coffee machine, but I can open a can

#133

Have to agree - the breweries really need to look at the pricing issue.
Where I live, we had a massive Wetherspoonsā€™ open and local people thought that would drive down prices of the other local pubs. The new 'Spoons has created quite a bit of foot traffic for the other pubs - so they have actually put their prices up!

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#134

Thereā€™s the point mentioned up there, that supermarkets can better swallow alcohol tax increases than pubs, so theyā€™re not pricing alcohol in the same way.

But also youā€™re not paying business rates, national insurance, various licenses, and staffing costs if youā€™re drinking at home. Pubs will never be able to compete with that.

(And I presume youā€™re also not drinking anything particularly fancy for that price, either. If youā€™re drinking craft/small batch stuff the price increase doesnā€™t feel nearly as onerous!)

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#135

Diners are without exception shit. Just boring, bland food that I can make better at home. Let them go out of business.

Let truckers survive on fast food alone

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#136

I hope they all close but slowly over time like maybe 20-30 years so people can adjust to it

#137

Personally and I can obviously only speak for myself, but for every good time Iā€™ve had in a pub Iā€™ve had 8 average or boring ones and 2 bad ones.

For every nice person Iā€™ve spoken to in a pub Iā€™ve spoken to twice as many lairy lads, had to sit through peopleā€™s bad opinions on immigration, taxation, misogyny, etc.

Been forced to carry on drinking way past when I want to because ā€œcome on one more drink!ā€ and Iā€™m not a fun drunk when I get too drunk but my impulse control isnā€™t great so I donā€™t like being put in this situation.

Hate that the pub and more drinking is the thing you do when you are English, they are often dingy and badly lit, smell of cigarettes, plenty of people you see there who look totally hopeless and are only there through a sense of inertia, probably spent 40 years hanging around with the same people they have nothing in common with because itā€™s a pub and thatā€™s what you do.

The odd pint in a random pub on a day out can be very nice but I honestly hope I never have a night out at a pub again.

#138

Youā€™re going to the wrong pubs.

Pubs are the best :slight_smile:

2 Likes
#139

around here there are only the wrong pubs

#140

also alcohol doesnā€™t really agree with me too well these days, sad when you feel like you are cut out of a social group or an inconvenience to people if you donā€™t want to go out drinking

#141

Very much ^this. Breweries tend to work off very tight margins (the smaller ones, anyway), and pubs have a huge amount of associated costs. Supermarkets can loss-lead on booze and will always be able to sell at at significantly lower price than a pub.

Also worth mentioning the big mark-ups put on purchasing by the big Pubcos, which exacerbate the issues re: lack of flexibility, choice and sell price for tied estates.

That all said, bars with a rotating tap selection that are still insistent on setting an inflexible profit margin across their beer range is my absolute pet hate (hello there Brewdog/Drafthouse/Craft Beer Co!), and are part-responsible for some of the ridiculous horror stories of ā€œĀ£14 pintsā€ that the tabloids like to publish every few months on a slow news day.

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#142

This is a thing that gets missed quite a lot isnā€™t it? Sad as it is, JDW can immediately create a bit of a drinking anchor thatā€™s get people to a place, once, who then realise there are other things to do.

JDW are trying to open what looks like a great space with roof terrace in a middle class if studenty bit of Bristol, in a building that has been empty for years (possibly decades) and whilst I donā€™t want them there, there is a chance that a building gets a much needed facelift and the nichey pubs in the area actually feel a lift.

https://www.bristol247.com/food-and-drink/news-food-and-drink/wetherspoon-keep-pushing-to-open-pub-on-gloucester-road/

#143

You can get soft drinks in pubs