A Brief History Of British Pubs

The Roman Invasion

The proud heritage of British pubs can be traced back hundreds of years ago when the Romans invaded Britain in 43 AD. After the Romans gained control of large parts of Britain, they began constructing road networks throughout Britain's dense forests and challenging terrains, and every 20 miles along those roads, the Romans built a taberna (plural tabernae), which was a type of ancient shop. Those establishments sold wine and food, which proved a necessary provision for the roving Roman troops and merchants. The Romans demonstrated the importance of simple advertisement by means of traditionally placing vine leaves outside Taberna merchants to show that wine was sold at those particular locations. However, because vine leaves were rare in Britain at that time due to the British climate, consequently, British evergreen bushes began to be widely used as a substitute. Historians claim it was this practice that initially inspired the early pub owners in Britain to brandish such famous signs as The Bush, The Hollybush, and The Bull & Bush.

King Edgar's Alehouse Peg Law

The Romans launched invasions against Scotland, in 73 AD, and subsequent invasions were launched against Ireland, in 80 AD. But ultimately, the Roman military campaigns failed against both nations, which was partly due to the very dense forests, harsh terrains, as well as the very unpredictable and extreme weather conditions in those regions. Also, the ancient Irish and Scottish celts and clans had good knowledge of their homelands, as a result, they were able to use such advantages to launch crippling guerrilla tactics against the Roman invaders, moreover, for whatever reasons, the Roman high command had refused or was unable to commit the necessary military forces to vanquish those regions, meaning, Scotland and Ireland had largely retained their cultures and sovereignties from Roman influences. Over many generations, the Romans in Britain were under constant intermittent raids from the Irish and Scottish celts and clans, who launched their attacks into Britain from the northern borders, and the Saxons, known as early medieval Germanic and Scandinavian tribes from a part of Germany, who had launched their invasions via the eastern borders of Britain.

By the early 5th century, the city of Rome was besieged by repeated and unrelenting attacks from its collective enemies. As a consequence, the Roman Empire was beginning to fragment. Therefore, the Romans in Britain had to return home to assist in the fight to save their homeland. The Romans finally departed Britain around 410 AD, and this event marked the beginning of the Anglo-Saxon era. Over the following centuries, there was a proliferation of Anglo-Saxon taverns and inns across many villages and towns in Britain. The word tavern was derived from the Latin 'taberna', consequently, over time, tavern and inn became synonymous and interchangeable, and those establishments were characterized by their provision of drinks, food, and lodgings. Alehouses originated from this period in British history; specifically, they stemmed from private homes where the owners brewed and served beer for the consumption of their patrons. In this era, British drinking establishments became notorious for drunkenness and disorderliness, which rose to such an alarming degree that the Anglo-Saxon King Edgar (born 959 - died 975), who was also known as the 'Peaceable' was forced to intervene in around 970, when he introduced a decree intending to limit the number of inns and alehouses in villages across Britain. In addition, King Edgar was said to be responsible for the introduction of a drinking measure known as the peg, which was a means to control the amount of alcohol that individuals could consume in such drinking establishments. King Edgar ordered pegs to be manufactured into the sides of all ale tankards and declared that no man should be allowed to drink below the level of the peg at one sitting; hence, the birth of the expression, to take someone down a peg.

King Richard II's Alehouse Act (1393)

King Richard II (born 1367 - died 1400) passed an Act in 1393, making it compulsory for alehouses, taverns, and inns to exhibit a sign on the front of their premises, and King Richard's emblem was the ‘White Hart’ in London. It is important to mention that during the medieval era, most of Britain was illiterate. Therefore, illustrative pub signs were very much appreciated by the general public. Moreover, the clear identification of those signs was particularly useful to the professional ale tasters, who were employed to visit such establishments at that time in history. It was also common for alehouses and taverns to pledge their allegiance to the ruling monarch by brandishing the emblems of those monarchs on the entrances of their premises, as well as signs that exhibited famous English historical battles. Also, some of the early alehouses and taverns affixed long poles or ale stakes (used to stir ale) to the outside of their buildings to advertise that they sold ale. If both wine and ale were sold, both bush and ale stakes would be exhibited outside those establishments.

King Edward VI's Alehouse Act (1552)

It is believed that around the reign of King Henry VII (born 1457- died 1509), also known as Henry Tudor, alehouses, inns, and taverns became commonly regarded as public houses. In the year 1552, King Edward VI, the boy monarch (born 1537- died 1553) and his council introduced an Act which required alehouses, innkeepers, and taverns to have a license to sell alcohol. Alehouses and taverns provided food and drink to their patrons, whilst inns typically provided alcohol, various meals, and offered their guests accommodation. Inns accommodated a wide variety of patrons, government officials, merchants, soldiers, aristocrats, writers, academics, and pilgrims who were travelling to and from religious shrines. The license decree was partly to standardize the quality of alcohol production and help to reduce illegal traders. During the medieval era, drinking water contained such high levels of impurities (unless obtained from a spring) that many people chose to consume beer or wine as a safer alternative. In addition, beer and wine were relatively cheap to acquire, and as a result, alcoholism was said to be very prevalent at that time.

British Beer

In Europe during the Middle Ages, Germany and Holland were considered the first nations to master the art of utilizing hops to create beer. In medieval Britain, ale brewed with hops (humulus lupulus) was gradually introduced in the 14th and 15th centuries, and this alcoholic drink became commonly known as beer. Before the introduction of beer, British ale was brewed without hops, and ale was the most popular drink spanning medieval Britain. Originally ale was partly made with extracts of malt and a variety of herbs, but the introduction of hops to ale enhanced a richer foam that lingered for longer on the surface of the beverage, in addition, hops created a bitter quality that balanced the sweetness of the malt, which ultimately proved a key component for a fuller flavoured alcoholic drink, but importantly, hops were first utilized to preserve the quality of beer for a longer duration. It is said that Britain first began the cultivation of native hops in Kent in the early 16th century. Before this event, British farmers had to import hops into Britain from other European nations. But by 1550, the popularity of beer as a part of a traditional British diet was such that most British breweries began including hops to make beer, while the terms alehouse and beer house became synonymous.

The Gin Craze

The Gin Craze was a depressing era of alcohol addiction that stemmed from the poorest communities in Britain, which started around the early 18th century, especially across London. Interestingly, gin was first created around the 13th century as a medicinal elixir by monks and alchemists across Europe. The name gin was derived from the French term for juniper berry, genièvre, and this term was changed to Jenever by the Dutch and then eventually shortened to gin by the British. It is thought that modern gin was introduced to Britain when William of Orange (Dutch heritage, born 1650 - died 1702) became King of England in 1689. However, other sources state that a significant development occurred in 1690 when the London Guild of Distillers lost their monopoly, which dramatically stimulated the British market for gin production. During a time of political and religious strife between Britain and France, the British government prohibited many French goods from being sold in Britain, and from the late 17th century, the British Government passed a series of laws to restrict wine and brandy imports, thereby, encouraging home-grown gin production, including, a reduction of taxes on the distillation of certain spirits, and enacted measures which assisted the smaller distillers to compete against the larger British breweries. In that era, the consumption of English gin proved very popular amongst the poorest communities in Britain, mainly because it was cheaper to purchase compared to other spirits, concurrently, the price of food became more affordable for British people, partly due to the prosperity of British international trading networks around the world at that time.

By the early 18th century, there were about 7000 legal gin shops in London alone. Moreover, there were many more illegal distributors in operation elsewhere across Britain. By 1743, it was estimated that English drinkers were consuming about 2.2 gallons of gin each person, each year. Gin addiction was attributed to moral decline, declining birth rates, rising crime, mental health issues, and higher death rates. For the first time, certain venues allowed female drinkers to participate alongside male drinkers, numerous women began to neglect their responsibilities and their children, and countless women turned to prostitution and vice. As a result, gin became notoriously known as 'Mother's ruin'. Between 1729 and 1751, the British parliament introduced several Gin Acts, aiming to control gin consumption in England. The Gin Act of 1751 prohibited gin distillers from selling to unlicensed merchants, and it restricted retail licenses to the larger established distillers and retailers, thereby eliminating many small gin shops and illegal sellers. As beer was considered a relatively healthy alcoholic alternative, the government encouraged more consumption of beer by lowering beer prices. Meanwhile, a series of poor yearly harvests had resulted in a dramatic increase in the price of grain, meaning, British farmers became less dependent on gin production, at the same time, several adverse factors within the British economy led to an increase in food prices and a decrease in people's wages, meaning, the poorest societies could not afford the alcoholic spirit of their choice, as a result, by around 1757, the British Gin Craze began to significantly decline.

The Victorian Pub Era

The Industrial Revolution (1760-1840) was an important event in history, which caused dramatic changes in manufacturing technologies. The manufacturing industries that were initially driven by the lucrative textile and cotton industry quickly diversified and expanded, particularly in and around city areas in the United Kingdom. Meaning, a far greater amount of employment became readily available, which eventually led to a greater distribution of wealth across the United Kingdom. Other nations across the world also benefited significantly from this global phenomenon, particularly Europe, which also witnessed unprecedented population growth. Meanwhile, there was a proliferation of pubs across Britain as high demand continued unabated. There were many contributory factors to the evolution and popularity of pubs within Britain. A merchant and entrepreneur called John Lofting (originally Jan Loftingh), who was a native of the Netherlands, had immigrated to London, England, in about 1688. In this era, Lofting became famous for patenting several devices, but arguably his most famous legacy was the invention of the beer engine, which was a rudimentary system designed for beer dispensing. Nevertheless, a British hydraulic engineer named Joseph Bramah received equal notability after he further developed and refined the beer pump between 1785 and 1795. Early versions of this device were utilized in many Victorian pubs across the nation, but it was during the early 20th century that beer was more commonly served from beer pressure barrels. Important, when the British government introduced the Beerhouse Act in 1830, this contributed to the Golden Age of pub-building, which spanned approximately 1880 to 1904. These innovations and other important events were significant factors in the unprecedented growth and popularity of British pubs throughout the Victorian era.

The Beerhouse Act, in 1830, sometimes known as the 'Duke of Wellington Beer Act' since it was his government that was in place at that time, was seen as a great milestone within the brewery and pub industries. This Act was intended to increase competition between breweries by lowering the price of beer and by changing regulations governing the brewing and retail of beer. As a result, more people were encouraged to drink beer instead of indulging in strong spirits. Before the Victorian pub-building revolution, many pubs were traditionally partitioned into two sections, intended to separate working-class patrons from middle-class patrons. The pubs with exclusive middle-class lounge areas exhibited a variety of high-quality furnishings. In contrast, pub working-class lounge areas were generally poor standard with plain wooden chairs or benches, and unfurnished floorboards, which were sometimes covered with sawdust to absorb the habitual spitting or the accident-prone spillages of alcohol on the floor by the locals, then known as 'spit and sawdust'. Also important to mention during that era, the laws relating to working-class pubs had strictly prohibited women from admittance, on the other hand, there was evidence that middle-class lounges accepted middle-class women, albeit with a male escort.

The Tied House System

The late 19th century witnessed British breweries galvanize ruthless competition against each other in an attempt to expand and secure markets for their alcoholic products. British commercial breweries began to dominate the production and sale of a variety of beers and alcoholic spirits within the United Kingdom after those companies started an aggressive campaign to purchase numerous pubs across the nation. The tied house system was an expression used to describe the licensed houses owned by British breweries, who leased the property to tenants or pub managers, on the condition that only alcohol supplied by that brewery or proprietor should legally be sold in those pubs. This system of operation represented a fundamental shift in the way that many British pubs operated, and those years are now widely regarded as the birth of the tied house system, a process which continued well into the 20th century. Amalgamations and buy-outs became commonplace, and by the 1980s, there were only six large breweries left in the United Kingdom, each one collectively known as the Big Six, namely, Allied Breweries, Bass, Courage, Grand Metropolitan, Scottish & Newcastle, and Whitbread.

The Oldest Pub In Ireland

Sean’s Bar in Athlone is the oldest pub in Ireland and all of Europe. It is believed that Sean's Bar was founded by Luain Mac Luighdeach in 900 AD. When Mac Luighdeach was the innkeeper of the building, it is said that he acted as a guide to help travellers who attempted to cross the rapid torrents of the notoriously treacherous River Shannon. Athlone marks the site of what was once an expansive stream running across the Shannon, then known as the Ford of Great Antiquity. Over time, a settlement built up around the crossing point, and the town came to be known as Bail-Áth-Luain, which means the town of Luan's ford, also known as the town of the ford of the moon, and later known as Athlone. The River Shannon translates to wise river, and its name is derived from the Goddess Sionnan, revered as a sea deity in Celtic mythology. Sionnan translates to 'the possessor of wisdom', and the Irish term for the River Shannon is Abhainn na Sionainne.

The Old Forge Pub Of Scotland

The Old Forge Pub is situated in the village of Inverie, on Scotland’s Knoydart peninsula, in the Scottish Highlands. It is the remotest pub in Scotland and the United Kingdom, and it is featured in the Guinness Book of Records. It is believed that the building was once a humble cottage home, which was built well over two hundred years ago in the 1770s. Generations later, it became a smiddy's forge, then many years on, it was transformed into a social club, and finally, it became one of Scotland's most famous pubs. The Old Forge Pub remains a fascination, partly due to its remote location and checkered history, but also, there are no roads accessible by vehicles in or out of that destination. The village of Inverie has a population of about 140 residents, and any strangers attempting to reach that location must hike about 18 miles over a mountain region called Munros. But the village of Inverie can also be reached via a passenger ferry journey spanning 7 miles overseeing the beautiful waters of Loch Nevis, alternatively, helicopter and seaplane services travel to and from that location. The Old Forge Pub has been listed as one of the top 10 places in Scotland to dine out for the best quality wines, beers, spirits, and for providing the finest quality seafood, the pub is even reported to have a team of scallop divers at the ready, who bring back fresh seafood to the pub's kitchen each day. The Old Forge entertains thousands of foreign guests every year, and it is known to provide top gourmet dishes throughout the year, including, a tempting selection of fresh lobsters, mussels, scallops, fish, and a range of venison stews, and on most evenings its patrons are treated to live music.

The Royal Victorian Pavilion Pub

The Royal Victorian Pavilion Pub is one of the largest pubs in Britain, and a landmark building, originally founded in 1903, as a theatre concert hall with one large cafe. It was designed by the famous architect Stanley Davenport Adshead (born 1868- died 1947). It is situated ideally facing the picturesque seaside resort in Ramsgate, Kent, England. The Victorian Pavilion measures almost 11,000 square feet and was designed for a capacity audience of 1,400 to 1,500. It has well over 300 tables and can host more than 1,400 customers across 10,000 square feet, including 18 ale hand-pulls and 54 lager and cider taps. The grand opening ceremony for the Pavilion was held on 26 June 1904, and it was conducted by Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll (born 1848 - died 1939). Princess Louise named the theatre in honour of her mother, Queen of England, Alexandrina Victoria (born 1819- died 1901). The Victorian Pavilion was converted into a casino in 1970, and then closed down for modernization in 2008, but it was spectacularly reintroduced as Wetherspoons Public House between 2017 to 2018. In recent times, Wetherspoons has announced plans to refurbish and increase the capacity of the Victorian Pavilion, namely, it is destined to become either the largest or one of the largest pubs in all of Europe.

The Beating Heart And Soul

The evolution of the British pub and its changing nature over many centuries has painted a fascinating journey throughout British history. Once upon a time, it was widely considered to be a place of refuge for the poorest citizens in Britain who were in search of a reprieve from the hardship of their daily existence. However, the public house has evolved over the ages to be acknowledged as the beating heart and soul of British society. Currently, the British pub is arguably considered the most endearing and enduring drinking establishment in British history, and certainly one of the most significant cultural and social cohesive fabrics that continues to bind together local communities within the United Kingdom. The pub is not merely seen as a drinking home to quench one's ardent thirst, but it is also heralded by many people as a communal haven of cohabitation and camaraderie, and a temporary solace to replenish one's weary soul.