British Pubs

The English Pub

 

 The Pub is a traditional part of English life.  This is not surprising. In all societies, places where people can have a drink together are part of social life. They are places where people go to talk to each other, to find companionship, to gossip and catch up on news. The French have their cafés, Americans their fast foods, and the British their pubs.  The English pub is a place with an important social function - a meeting place, somewhere to relax, a place where people drink, talk and traditionally play games like cards or darts or even billiards. Sociological surveys show that the pub is the only place where the English, who are usually very reserved, willingly begin a conversation with a stranger!

The names of the pubs

 

  The word "pub" is short for "public house", which means a historic kind of community centre. In many English pubs, the large majority of consumers will be people from the neighbourhood, the village, or the parish. The pub that people visit most regularly is known as their "local".
    There are many very old pubs in England. The oldest of all, it is said, is a Nottingham pub called  the "Old Trip to Jerusalem ", whose name dates  back to the Middle Ages when it was an inn frequented by Crusaders. Old pubs are mostly in the countryside, or in historic city centres, and when a pub is not old, the owner will often make an effort to make it look older than it really is with old oak furniture, soft lighting and so on.
     In the countryside, many  old English pubs are inns or old taverns with a few bedrooms for travellers, as well as their bars.

                   

Every traditional pub is distinguished on the outside by its painted pub sign illustrating its name. In the old days, these signs were necessary to identify the different pubs because most people couldn’t read.   The origins of the names of pubs in England are sometimes related to history. Pubs called "The King's Arms" are in villages which were on the royalist side during the Civil War in the 17th century. In London, the name of the famous pub "The Elephant and Castle" comes from the words " the Infanta of Castile ", who was the wife of King Edward I.

                       

    In cities having to do with the wool trade, there are pubs called "The Sheep"  or "The Woolsack". With a few modern exceptions, every pub name tells a story.

    Of course, there are also many "modern" pubs, especially in city centres, and the people who go there are office-workers, businessmen, tourists, or young people out for a night. Depending on the type of customer they have, these pubs will often have large TV screens to show football matches, karaoke, fruit machines (slots), music and/or trendy lighting.

Drinking and eating in English pubs

 

    One thing that often surprises foreign visitors is that in pubs there is no table service. If you go in for a drink, don’t expect the waiter to come and take your order sitting round a table or outside on a beautiful summer day. He won't. It's up to customers to go to the bar, place orders, and return to the table with the drinks.

               

   The same goes for food: if you decide to go for a pub meal, you normally have to order at the bar, and after that - depending on the pub - you will be given an order number, or a table number. In some pubs, your meal will be brought to your table once it's been prepared; in others, you'll need to keep listening until someone behind the bar calls out your number, and you go and pick it up on a tray at the bar.
   Generally speaking, you must pay for your food and drink when ordered, not after you have finished. On the other hand, if you are staying as a guest in an inn, and go for a drink or a meal in the bar downstairs, you can have it added to your bill.

      

Fish and chips and mushy peas              Sausages and mash                           Steak and ale pie

 

Ales, beer, lager and other drinks

 

Most people think of bars as places where people drink "beer", but a lot has changed in the last 30 years. The traditional strong dark British ales, often called “bitter”, have been substituted by light beers (called "lager” in English). Together with these, there are also industrially produced beers.
   

                 

     If you want to drink a normal sized glass of beer (around 250 millilitres), ask for a "half":  this is half a pint. The English usually order "a pint" at a time. People never just order "a beer" in an English pub; the tradition is to indicate both the volume (half pint or pint) and the specific beer you want. So if you're ordering for two people, you may say something like "A pint of Guinness and a half of Heineken, please." The "please" at the end is a must!
    Pubs do not only serve beer ! You can order almost anything you want to drink, even spirits. Some pubs offer coffee, but if you want a cup of tea don’t go to a pub! For this there are cafés, restaurants and tea rooms (which do not serve alcoholic drinks).

      As a final warning, it is advisable to avoid pubs in the centre of some cities on Friday night and Saturday night. You’d better go to a pub in a suburb, or in the country.   "Binge drinking" has become a serious social problem in some city centres, where, on Friday and Saturday nights, young people go into bars with the intention of getting drunk.  It is a social phenomenon common in England.   British police often work hard on Friday and Saturday night to control youth gangs who have drunk too much, and are looking for trouble.

Meet you at the pub! Cheers!