Tag: licensing

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Beer history pubs

Not Enough Opening Hours in the Day

PUB SIGN: 'Public Bar'.

It seems that this is ‘Quirks of Licensing Law’ season here on the blog: today, a few notes on the problems, and opportunities, of neighbouring districts with different pub opening hours.

The 1921 Licensing Act gave magistrates the freedom to fix within limits the opening and closing hours of pubs in their districts. In London in particular, this led to great consternation among publicans, who simply wanted uniform pub opening hours from, say, 11 am to 11 pm.

It also turned the whole business into something of a game, as one report in The Times pointed out:

A curious effect of these varying hours is that anybody setting out to get drink during as long a period of the day as possible could begin at 11 am in Kensington, continue — if he took lunch — until 3:30 pm, start again at 4:30 in Stoke Newington, and by returning to the Holborn area have a glass before him until half an hour after midnight. (03/11/1921, p.7.)

What was fun for some, however, meant trouble for others. In 1929, Mr E.H. Keen, chair of the Holborn Licensing Justices, told the Royal Commission on Licensing of the result of Holborn’s pubs staying open until 11 while those in neighbouring Marylebone, Finsbury and St Pancras closed at 10:

Between the hours of 10 and 11 outsiders from all quarters pour into Holborn, and the scenes in the public-houses nearest the boundaries baffle description. The bars are overcrowded with disorderly men and women, many of them the worse for drink, and at closing time they are turned out with difficulty and behave outside in the most disgusting and rowdy manner. The nuisance to the neighbours is unbearable… The condition of things is a disgrace to civilisation. All decency is disregarded. (Lancs Evening Post, 05/12/1929, p.7.)

But it would take years for this problem to even begin to be solved — until the 1961 Licensing Act, as far as we can tell — during which time the strategies of drinkers became cleverer and more elaborate as they learned of more dodges and tricks.

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Beer history pubs

Bona Fide Travellers: Fibbing For a Pint

he Rocky Road to Dublin: the bona fides returning from Finglas', 1905.

Until 1921, while British pub opening hours were restricted by law, there was a loop-hole: publicans could sell booze to ‘bona fide travellers’.

We haven’t been able to pin down exactly when this loophole was introduced but an 1839 House of Commons debate mentions that ‘Landlords are entitled, under the Licensing Act, to serve bona fide travellers’.

What constituted a bona fide traveller, however, was much debated, and tested in courts up and down the country. In 1864, the Court of Common Plea upheld an appeal against magistrates in Birmingham and declared that ‘parties out for a stroll’ were just as much bona fide as those on business, so that, as long as you had walked a bit beforehand (i.e. from your village to the next one,) it was perfectly OK for a pub to serve you ‘during Church hours’ on a Sunday. (London Standard, 19/11, p.4.)

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london pubs

Memorable Beers #4: New Cross Lock In

We’d walked past the rough-looking pub in New Cross hundreds of times, heading back and forth to the tube, to the shops, to the Taste of Raj, but it had never even crossed our mind to go in. We’d never seen anyone go in.

It had nicotine-yellow net curtains, fly-blown windows, peeling paintwork and, late at night, what looked like the light from two 40 watt bulbs was the only sign of occupation.

For some reason or other, though, Bailey’s parents liked the look of it. They’d driven a long way from Somerset , arriving late in the evening, and wanted more than one pint, despite the approach of last orders. Having run a pub, they looked at this place and smelled a lock in.

Sure enough, Bailey’s Dad sent the signals: two pints and two whiskies down in double quick time to indicate serious intent. The curtains were drawn, the landlady winked, and we were away. The beer was… actually, the beer wasn’t memorable at all. If it tasted of anything, it was late night, transgression, cigarettes and hushed conversation.