Even-Tempered View of the English Pub, 1870s

In 1877 The Sun in New York covered the English pub, one of many American press articles on the subject between the end of the Civil War and the 1950s.

The pub has long exercised a certain pull on the American imagination, to this day although lessening I think due to craft beer prestige.

It manifested in different ways, including building American restaurants and bars that copied the look of the tap-house/pub/tavern/inn – all largely akin in American eyes. Inevitably the Yankee versions diverged from the originals but attempts at emulation never ceased.

An extract from The Sun:

LONDON, Nov. 1.—In Great Britain, everybody, approximately speaking, drinks wine, ale, or beer—women and children not excepted. A very large majority of the English people look upon ale and beer as being quite as necessary a part of of their living as tea and coffee—and as being quite as legitimate, too. …. In England, a man who does not drink is something of an oddity. Abstinence is looked upon as a whim; few can detect in it a real principle. … Nearly all families keep a jug of beer or ale in the house, and all partake of it daily. When the jug is empty, the wife or daughter thinks nothing of running into the public house for a new supply.

…. The English public house is comparatively respectable. The occupation itself is considered reputable, and the most attractive house-fronts in almost any business street, are those of the public houses. Within, they contrast very favorably with other places of business … When people all drink beer, the places where beer is sold cannot well be other than reasonably decent. I would not be understood as saying that the average English public house is a thoroughly reputable place, but it is less objectionable than our American saloon.

In most public houses girls wait upon the bar, and, so far as I can see, they are generally quite as intelligent and well behaved as those who wait upon customers in other branches of business. At any busy part of the day you would not often look into a public house without seeing a fair sprinkling of women present.

…. drunkenness is not of the most violent kind, but it is very general.

This assessment was rendered about the time a dyspeptic article on the pub appeared by another American, which I discussed here.

The Sun’s article is more even-tempered, more reasonable. It wants to want to get at the facts without a distorting lens.

The normality of the pub as business enterprise is stressed. The staff is portrayed as honest working people, the type any usual shop would house.

It is perceived the pubs catered to a genuine, widespread demand in much of the population, with pub owners depicted for the most part as respectable.

In other words, the regular imbibing of alcohol by the people was seen as an English cultural trait, not an imposition by cynical syndicates of brewers, or by-product of a wayward licensing system.

The article acknowledged there was drunkenness, but it isn’t explored in any depth. It is hard to know if on a net basis the writer thought English society better or worse off as a result. I suspect he thought the former, but expressed it in a taciturn way consistent with Gilded Age sensibilities.

The noting of women as regularly present in London pubs is interesting. There is no reference to females seeking the “hidden” compartments such as the snug, or arriving at the pub just to fetch beer to take home.

The observation is simply made that you will find women in the pubs at busier times, with perhaps an implication of approval (in contrast of course to American saloons, the German versions a partial exception).

Other evidence is available to support widespread, early patronage of pubs by women, supposed Victorian sensibilities to the contrary notwithstanding.

See this interesting paper that compares pubs in Liverpool and Manchester berween 1840 and 1914, by Alistair Mutch (especially at 27).

Practice would have varied of course depending on the type of pub, the locality, and approach of the local licensing regime, but Mutch’s conclusions are striking still.

Fragmentary as The Sun’s and other press reports are of the pub, taken together they form a Mass Observation-type social study, well before its time need I say.

One advantage of this journalistic coverage is, unless coming from a strong ideological base such as a temperance or religious-oriented newspaper, the depiction of social reality tends to be relatively objective.

So was the pub of net benefit or net detriment to Victorian society? A large question.

An old adage has it that the truth lies somewhere in the middle. Perhaps that was true for the public house in Victorian Britain –  it was never as wicked as its worst enemies argued, never as benign as its ardent supporters wished.

Note re sources: The quotation above is drawn from the press report linked in the press, archived in the Fulton History newspapers. All intellectual property therein belongs solely to the lawful owner, as applicable. Quotation used for educational and historical purposes, and for fair comment. All feedback welcomed.

 

 

 

 

 

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