Short History of the British Pub Culture

The British pub is a world-famous cultural institution, and it has long been a central part of the social landscape in both quiet villages on the countryside as well as bustling metropolises like London. Taverns signs on the outside and pub interiors on the inside tell stories about local histories, past owners and clientele. Through the British Empire, the pub tradition has expanded and gained popularity well beyond the British Isles. So how did this fascinating institution come to be, and what has it signaled over the years?

While brewing ale at home was easy and a completely normal activity, it was a commonplace practice that technically anyone could open their place of residence to the public as an alehouse, which explains the contemporary term public house. By the end of the eighteenth century, the shortened version of the word - pub - had also became commonly used. Over time public house, or pub, has become a generic term for inns, taverns, and alehouses, whose once distinct functions have become more blurred.

Public houses have served an important social and cultural role in the British history by being the primary meeting places for people to socialize outside of their home life or work. This is emphasized by how after the Reformation, many secular functions were passed on from churches to local taverns or alehouses. In cities like London, public houses have had a crucial role in integrating newcomers into the local communities, while also sustaining a sense of community among the old inhabitants. In other words, the historic role of British pubs goes far beyond just serving alcohol to the public.

The sense of community can be, however, a double-edged sword, including others while excluding some people. Throughout human history, eating and drinking have been class- and gender-based activities. That is to say, the normative social order has a lot to do with where it has been suitable for someone to have a pint, and with whom. Historically, London taverns used to be more expensive and exclusive, serving mostly male clientele and wine rather than beer. Oldest of them date back to the Middle Ages. Alehouses, on the other hand, were usually more short-lived, attracted local people of lower classes and more likely of both sexes. Who you socialized with was divided along class, gender, neighborhood, and occupational lines, and public houses functioned as a part of that division.

For a long time, beer used to have a widely recognized nutritional importance beyond intoxication. In an environment where water was not always safe to drink, it served as a part of the diet as both drink and food. After the Victorian period, however, municipal water systems became commonplace and alcohol consumption had become more of a moral and political issue rather than a self-evident part of the diet. Many saw pubs as a social nuisance that led especially working-class men and families to ruin, and there were attempts to “reform” pubs and make them more family-friendly. However, the temperance movement never got the upper hand over the British pubs, and during the Second World War, beer and the pubs got a kind of a remission by becoming positioned as a central emblem of “Britishness” in the war propaganda. They came to represent what was best, not worst, in the British culture, in this idealized new war-time identity grounded in moderation, fellowship and good-humoured stoicism.
‍
Nowadays the British pub institution is living and changing with the changing times, along with other forms of everyday culture. The traditional pub has experienced some turmoil over the last few decades, which has made some traditionalists fear for its future. The trend has been towards segmentation in an increasingly competitive modern environment: the traditional British pub can no longer offer all things for all people. Themed pubs and other alternatives have appeared to compete with the traditional village or neighborhood pubs, which no longer possess the comprehensive social function they once used to. However, the pub tradition has been able to adapt with the changing times before – with its simultaneously modern and timeless charm that has lasted for centuries, maybe we shouldn’t worry about its survival too much.

Bibliography
Bucholz, R. O., & Ward, J. (2012). London : A Social and Cultural History, 1550–1750. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Chrzan, J. (2013). Alcohol: Social Drinking in Cultural Context. New York: Routledge.
Knowles, T. and Dingle, A. (1996). The Role and History of the British Pub. International Journal of Wine Marketing, 8(1), pp.29-40.
Nicholls, J. (2009). The Politics of Alcohol: A History of the Drink Question in England. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Phillips, R. (2014). Alcohol: A History. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press.
‍

Would you like to learn more about the history of British pub culture? Please explore the resources listed below!
Our main data set and inspiration for this project is called Volumes of signs of taverns in England and Wales. 1628 - 1858. It includes illustrations and newspaper cuttings, along with other material, concerning a remarkable number of historic taverns, inns, and pubs situated in England and Wales. It is part of the British Library's "Single Sheet" thematic collections, and is available online as 14 digitized volumes.
‍
‍https://data.bl.uk/singlesheet/tav1.html
‍