Cycling UK Forum

While in no way a serial drinker I do enjoy the odd pint, real ale not tin flavoured lager fizz. Consequently I've been known to visit the odd pub. What's amazing is how many have closed down. They're either private houses or have tenancy signs up with no takers.
Shouldn't be surprised if more boozers are closing now than ever before. A lot of them were grim anyway but not all were.
Rather sad.

What's amazing is how many have closed down.

Odd isn't it considering that we are now a binge drinking nation and illness due to alcohol is at a high for modern times. I guess it's the traditional old pubs abd rural ones that are closing, and the young trendy alcopops/cocktails type are doing well.

When my village were a mining community there were nigh on fifteen pubs. Now there are two and no one goes into one of those. Still, at least we ain't got a Starbucks or other poncey coffee shop yet

We must be a bunch of alcoholics then. THere are LOADS of pubs here. They all seem to be thriving too.


Mray hic.....

glueman wrote:....I've been known to visit the odd pub. What's amazing is how many have closed down. They're either private houses or have tenancy signs up with no takers.
Shouldn't be surprised if more boozers are closing now than ever before.
Rather sad.

Latest figures show a staggering 37 pubs a week are closing
It is not a business to join - Many pub owners are PubCos interested only in the property value. When a pub is successful they clobber the licensee with higher rents and prices - what other industry rewards success in such a way.

Darling's excessive tax increases, Pubco and brewer's greed, loss-leading supermarket promotions of chemical keg, officious council bureacracy and the underhand work of the Alcohol Health Alliance are all banging nails into the coffin of the public house.
Its not just sad, it is a catastrophe for a unique part of our country's heritage.

Si wrote:

What's amazing is how many have closed down.

Odd isn't it considering that we are now a binge drinking nation and illness due to alcohol is at a high for modern times.

Don't blame the pubs.

A major problem is that pubs are being lumped in with supermarkets and the cheap 'booze' off-licence chains when it comes to the 'new temperance movement's' aim to restrict, if not eradicate drinking.
Loss leaders of alcohol fuel the real binge drinking and much of today's anti-social behaviour.

Meanwhile it is the pub that provides a socially controlled environment for the enjoyment of responsible drinking. They are strictly regulated and the publican's livelihood is at stake if there is any 'trouble'.

Supermarkets have no idea what happens when they sell those heavily discounted boxes with their muti-buy offers that lead to the under-age can-swilling yobbery on the streets. Its not our fault they cry.

This matters little to those prohibitionists who wish to restrict drinking.
Beware. You can be labelled a binge drinker if you have a couple of pints with your Sunday Roast down your local!

keepontriking wrote:Don't blame the pubs.

I wasn't, I was just pointing out that it was strange that they were closing when alcohol consumption seems to be going up.

No doubt it'll get worse with the worsening economic situation - people wanting more booze possibly but not being able to afford pub prices so going to the cheap supermarkets instead.

As for restricting alcohol, well it wouldn't make much differece to my drinking as I rearely do these days. The majority of my pub visits are for coffee rather than booze; this again may be another reason the trendier pubs thrive while the traditional stall - people want coffee and good (possibly more sophisticated?) food much more often and the new trendier pubs and the chains are more likely to be able to cater for this market.

the problem seems to be accelerating since the smoking ban

i can drink at home and have to go outside for a smoke, so why bother going to a pub?

hubgearfreak wrote:the problem seems to be accelerating since the smoking ban

i can drink at home and have to go outside for a smoke, so why bother going to a pub?

For me the smoking ban is something that made me more likely to go to pubs. Now if only they would do a ban on children...

The people getting wrecked and causing mayhem are either drinking Own Brand tinnies, or Stella ("wife beater") in town bars. Old school pubs weren't known as dens of debauchery.
I reckon you have to own the freehold or set up a decent gastro pub to make any money. My favourite real pub nearish.

keepontriking wrote:
it is the pub that provides a socially controlled environment for the enjoyment of responsible drinking.

thats my experience

I'd like to see tax breaks for pubs
subject to drinking only on the premises, sensible opening hours and tax break taken away for failure to control rowdy behaviour

I agree too. It wasnt just the licensee keeping things under control either. In most pubs of my acquaintance the regulars would have some sort of standards, and it could get pretty frosty if you started to look like rocking the boat. By contrast when youngsters are sitting in a bus shelter with a bag of sixpacks there are no relevant standards of behaviour. Its not surprising that things get out of hand.

Si wrote:For me the smoking ban is something that made me more likely to go to pubs.

you've said earlier that you hardly ever drink, and only occasionally go in for a coffee. hardly going to keep a business afloat is it?

it's down to economics i'm afraid, me and 2 or 3 friends used to go to our local twice a week for 5 or so pints, now we don't. so that's almost a £100/pw drop in turnover. i'm sure that they'd be glad to sell you an occasional coffee, but sadly it isn't going to pay the rent & rates & staff & etc.

those of us that do smoke aren't too bothered by the 21 units rule, and we were good for a pubs business.

there's no point arguing about the smoking ban now, but it's going to kill a lot of drinking pubs, and that's that. those that will survive are those that cater for the sunday lunch brigade, but beefeaters, steakhouses et al are hardly part of either our built environment heritage or sense of community

The rot set in with the pub trade years ago. I've never been a huge drinker (I've never been in a pub in Gildersome) but I do like an occasional pint on holiday or when out for the day. Over the years I've had some involvement with licensing.

People's habits have changed. As heavy industry has died a death, there are less thirsty men needing a few pints to wash the muck away on the way home from work. The idea of people usually, men getting out on a Friday or Saturday night and sinking a couple of gallons in a couple of hours in a huge pub - perhaps on a corporation housing estate has also gone. Young people now go out much later and then move on from the pub to the club and that is where their money goes.

People have probably been saying this sort of thing since they invented yeast, but I first really noticed a change in the 1980's. Legislation intended to bring in competition just changed the ownership around. Brewing companies sold on a lot of licensed estate to chains and some even stopped brewing. Quite a lot of (usually loss-making) pubs were bought by people with redundancy money and everything seemed outwardly OK till that ran out.

People no longer go to a pub just for booze; they can get that cheaper in a supermarket. They go for relaxation. The pubs that have recognised the new family market - providing grub etc and pleasant surroundings have generally done well. Spit and sawdust, or at least the type of joint caricatured in 'Early Doors' is an acquired taste that few acquire these days. The smoking ban must have had a huge effect on that sort of joint, but the places trying to attract families and so on seem to have benefited.

I can't help thinking that pubs just aren't changing with the times ie instead of just selling beer,perhaps if they diversified selling (as bars do on the continent)newspapers,magazines,greetings cards,flowers, coffee, pastries,food (including breakfast),post office services,etc,a sort of do all be all establishment and also including B&B, enough of the pubs are quite big buildings.
Just my 2d worth.

Interesting points thirdcrank. There's a lot less manual labour about with the nearest pub to the mill, factory or whatever catching the trade. Also 'session' bitter and mild, the 3 and a bit percent stuff you can drink all day has been replaced by strong ales (not complaining) but you can't integrate them into a day of doing other things.

Even buses associated with mucky factories and the pit would have wooden slatted benches instead of horsehair and maquette. My dad never did a week's work that wasn't paid in cash in one of those brown perforated envelopes. I was looking at a site on old Butlin's holiday camps, the eptome of hard drinking entertainment and the Filey bar, longest in the world, took about 40 staff to man it.