The Plastic Pub Population Vs The Good Old British Boozer

I don’t know if the news headlines has caught anyone’s eyes recently but because of the likes of Wetherspoons and other chain restaurant pubs, we are starting to lose part of our British heritage, the good old fashioned British pub.  Proof of this is happening in my own town where at least 3 pubs have closed down because of beer price wars.  It makes me sad to see these old pubs being replaced by more modern buildings or vacant banks which contain nothing of our heritage or any of the real ale and ciders brewed here in Britain .  We have pubs that date as far back as the 11^th Century and contain many quirks from resident ghosts to curses and some even boast to owning bar stools that, if sat on, will get a woman pregnant.  Although, all of these tales could really be down to drinking too much of the great ale that the landlord’s sell, it shows that if the pubs close down it won’t just be the ales we’re losing.

This will have a knock-on effect because if the real ale pubs close down then the brewers will lose out on business and possibly have to close down also.  Live bands will find they have less places to play and so we will lose our weekly, sometimes nightly, cheap/free entertainment and because of this, the cover’s band could also die a death.  Landlords, Landladies and bar staff will all lose their jobs, as will brewers and many others who are employed to bring us this great British institution, the local pub.  It could also mean death to great pub games like Darts, Pool, Snooker, Dominoes and Cribbage, plus the all new favourite Pub Quiz.

The headlines also state that these closures are also due to the smoking ban in pubs.  The Wetherspoon chains were the first to initiate the smoke free bar and that it was partly because of these ‘Plastic’ pubs with their specially adapted smoking areas that the Government went ahead with the smoking ban in the first place.  Although, I can truly say I am not against the smoking ban as I believe that pubs are all the more nicer to sit in without the smoke creeping into your lungs, this ban hasn’t helped the trade in our ‘Real’ pubs as a lot of our traditional pubs haven’t the space or the money to create an area dedicated to smokers.  This has probably pushed the smokers of Britain into the ‘Plastic’ pubs because they have their own allocated area.  But if the smokers were to choose a traditional pub over these fake bars, then the extra money spent in the Good Old British Pub, with the help of the British Government, could be invested into better areas for smokers.

In my opinion it is because of these ‘Plastic’ pubs and their cheap foreign booze that we have all the problems on the streets at night with pumped up drunken hooligans, full of cheap alcohol, causing trouble.  And that because of these ‘Plastic’ pubs we are losing the personal touch of the old fashioned landlord who knows his customers so well as to know when they have had enough and is respected enough to be able to tell someone he’s not serving them anymore alcohol, without the backlash of violence that follows.  You will not find this quality in these ‘fake’ bars.  The bar-staff barely make eye contact with the person there serving; their only aim is to get the takings up in the till and to hell with the after effects.  So long as the bar is full of people who have money for more drinks, they don’t care what age they are or how drunk they are.

As a fan of real ale, the old fashioned pub and live music, I am saddened that one of many of the good pubs are on the brink of extinction.  If this carries on happening across the country all we will be left with is the likes of Wetherspoons chains with their art for repetitively boring food menus, the TV’s dotted around the room that only shows sport and rubbish music videos, the pre-set juke box that hasn’t heard of anything before the year 2000 unless it’s Abba’s ‘Dancing Queen’ and to make matters worse you can’t even drown your sorrows with a descent pint of beer as they only sell lagers.  Oh, and don’t forget that you have to make it past the meat-head bouncers with superiority complexes on the doors in the first instance.

Come on people, let’s boycott the likes of Wetherspoons and keep our British heritage alive.  We are famous across the world for our traditional British pub.  Many countries have tried to replicate these but no one can beat us with out the brews.  We want the freedom to drink great British brewed ale, to listen to live music without having pay stadium prices, to join in the weekly pub quiz and to chat with the local people who have been going there for so long that they have their own bar stool and tankard for beer.  We want friendly faces behind the bar and not someone who hasn’t got the time of day to smile and will put ice and lemon in your drink, even if you don’t want it.  We want the personal touch of the old-fashioned landlord, who will give you a free tipple on your birthday and let you try before you buy.   Come on people, stand by the British Boozer and say no to the Plastic Pub!