I am backing the Tourism Society in their campaign to save British pubs.

Why?  Even though I am teetotal? And a cancer patient?

Because the British pub out in the wilds of the countryside or in the middle of a city, is

• A venue that is often part of a local community, with its own personality – and they are all different
• Their signs often commemorate local history
• They are somewhere we can always find a loo when we need one desperately
• Somewhere we can get something to drink – and we all know we HAVE to have liquid regularly, particularly if we are on medication.

So we NEED them.

Pub signs

These are often sign-posts to local history, commemorating battles, or the local Lord and his family.  Many commemorate the Lord’s coat of arms, such as Boars, Lions, Bear and Ragged Staff, etc.   One famous one is The George’s sign, which swings over the entrance to the lovely galleried Inn in Southwark, London, where Pilgrims gathered before setting off on the long trek to Canterbury.  Another favourite is The Quiet Woman, whose sign shows Anne Boleyn with her head tucked under her arm, after her execution.

Any pub called The White Swan is almost certainly know to locals as The Dirty Duck, and there are many Rose and Crowns dating from the days of Civil War, when a prudent landlord showed he was a loyal subject.

You can buy books giving the history of pub signs, but just playing I Spy as you travel around can be great fun.  Some signs might seem racist, such as the many The Black Boy pubs.  But if you ask the Landlord the origin, you will find that when black people first came to Britain three centuries ago, they were considered a great wonder and the local pub would have cashed in on their celebrity status.

The Victorians loved humour, and there is a Drunken Doctor, and just outside Egham in Surrey is The Bird in Hand – which on one side shows an outstretched hand in the form of a bird, and on the other a young man walking with his girl (bird) on his arm.

The National Trust considers they are part of our heritage, and one of their most popular attractions is The Crown, in Belfast – always crowded.

Food and Drink

You don’t have to drink beer.  Many pubs now pride themselves on offering a good selection of wines by the glass, and my favourite tipple is Ginger beer -gaining popularity (and it’s actually non-alcoholic).  But many pubs – particularly those in the country – supply a mean cup of proper coffee in a cup, not a paper beaker.

Pubs have managed to survive the drink drive ban by diversifying into supplying good food, and we have become  used to the ‘local’ doing great things with produce from local farms.  When we go to France we no are no longer envious of the good food in most villages, but instead are tending to compare the French bistro unfavourably with our favourite gastropub.   France is taking too enthusiastically to ‘boil-in-the-bag’, which is what caught out Gordon Ramsey when it was discovered he had turned a favourite ‘local’ over to this lazy way of cooking.

Probably the most famous gastropub in the world is The Fat Duck,  down by the Thames at Bray in Berkshire.  Owned by Heston Blumenthal, five years ago fellow restauranteurs voted it the best restaurant in the world.

The pub has gained an unenviable reputation for lager louts and drunken hen parties.  But if my community of Chelsea is anything to go by, pubs are gradually realising they make more income by looking after sober locals.  A pub that was notorious for hosting   Chelsea football club supporters has closed down, and the pub opposite Chelsea’s gates, where the club was founded, now makes more money as a gastropub for locals  than hosting supporters.

We would miss them if they close

In the country, a pub can be a welcome sight when out for a walk, and we would miss them if they weren’t there as a refuge from rain, somewhere to get something to eat when we were starving in the middle of a walk, or just because we were thirsty.

However, The Tourism Society says British Pubs are closing at a rate of just under 6 per day.! As a result, they say the tourism offering in many towns and villages is being seriously degraded.

So follow my tee-total lead,  and sign the Back the Pub campaign. If you enter your postcode in the “Petition Your MP” box, this generates an automatic lobbying e-mail to your MP. Enter your details above and below the email box then click “send message”.http://www.backthepub.com/

P.S.

Incidentally, I always thought we got the word teetotal from Regency days, when tea was very expensive.  Most people drank beer, which was less alcoholic than we drink today; but if you were very rich you sipped cups of tea.  Snobby people even boasted to their friends they only drank tea – they were teetotal.

However, Lee Le Clercq,  Regional Secretary, North of England, British Beer and Pub Association knows his stuff.  He sent me an email to say “I liked the explanation for the term ‘teetotal’  however I hope you won’t mind me correcting you regarding its true origins.   In 1832 Joseph Livesey founded the Temperance Movement in Lancashire and regularly held rousing meetings in a Preston tavern called the ‘Old Cock Pit’.   It was one of his followers, Dickie Turner, who coined what was to become one of the most famous words to be connected with the Temperance Movement.    A reformed drinker and ardent follower, he was one day fervently advocating ‘total abstinence‘ when he is said to have stuttered over the word total. The result “t-t-t-total” was picked up by Livesey and very soon came into the language and the word teetotal has appeared in dictionaries ever since.     Thankfully, the Movement is still stuttering today!

And ‘one over the eight’?  Came about from the Royal court that issued a ration of eight pints to everyone, from serving wenches to Ladies in Waiting.  Eight pints was considered sufficient;  drink more and you might become drunk, or be one-over-the-eight.