To the Editor of A Monthly Bulletin
The inn life of England is one of the few things that makes me feel optimistic about the future. It seems to me that here there has been real progress since the war. As a woman, sometimes driving long distances alone, I now no longer need to take picnic lunches with all the paraphernalia of thermos flasks and sandwiches. I can have the fun of stopping at an attractive inn — truly they are as nice as your descriptions of them — and enjoy a drink and a sandwich, with no sense of embarrassment as a single woman in a bar. The increase in civilisation in this respect is to me quite remarkable. I remember the time when one entered a dingy tavern, smelling of stale beer only to feel an acute atmosphere of suspicion, not to say hostility. This to me is ‘progress’ in the best sense, and, therefore, very welcome indeed.
MRS. M. PHILIPS, J.P.
From the Brewers’ Society pub propaganda magazine, December 1968. (With thanks to Martyn Cornell for very kindly donating his spare copies.)
One reply on “QUOTE: Women in Pubs, 1968”
I wonder if things have actually got worse since the 1960s! More probably, Mrs Philips (JP) was old enough to remember when the risk facing a woman going into a pub alone wasn’t stares or pickup attempts, but actual disapproval and refusal of service.