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In the 1930s the Anglo-French writer Hilaire Belloc penned the following cautionary warning: "When you have lost your inns drown your empty selves, for you will have lost the last of England!"
Public houses are culturally, socially and traditionally different from other places found elsewhere in the world such as cafés, bars, bierkellers and brewpubs. There are approximately 60,000 public houses in the United Kingdom. In many places, especially in smaller villages, a pub can be the main focal point of the local community, playing a similar role to the local church in this respect.
Pubs are social places for the sale and consumption of mainly alcoholic beverages, and most public houses offer a wide range of beers, wines, spirits and alcopops. Beer served in a pub can range from pressurised "keg" beer, to "cask-conditioned" real aleReal ale is a type of beer defined by its traditional production. Also known as "cask conditioned" beer; the fundamental distinction between real and other ales is that the yeast is still present at the point of consumption, meaning it is unfiltered. beer brewed in the time-honoured fashion. The beer lends most pubs a pleasant, memorable aroma. Often the windowArticles about other meanings include Window codename (In the 2nd World War), Window (astronomy), window (computing), window system, or X Window System. Window in a Japanese Onsen in hakone A window is an opening in an otherwise solid, opaque surface thros of the pub are of smoked or frosted glass so that the clientele are obscured from the street.
The owner or manager (licensee) of a public house is known as the publican, and may be referred to as "guv" (short for guv'nor, or governor) in some parts of the country. Each pub generally has a crowd of regulars, people who drink there on a regular basis. The pub people visit most often is called their local. In many cases, this will be the pub nearest to their home, but some people choose their local for other reasons: proximity to work, a traditional venue for their friends, the availability of real aleReal ale is a type of beer defined by its traditional production. Also known as "cask conditioned" beer; the fundamental distinction between real and other ales is that the yeast is still present at the point of consumption, meaning it is unfiltered., or maybe just a poolThe term billiards refers to a group of games where balls are struck with a cue to score points, or knock balls into a pocket. The term is also commonly used to refer to a table with no pockets, where points are usually scored by making contact with certa table.
Colloquialisms for the public house include boozer, the local and rub-a-dub-dub (see Cockney Rhyming Slang).
The inhabitants of the British Isles have been drinking aleAle is an ancient word for a fermented alcoholic beverage obtained chiefly from malted barley. The closest thing to traditional ale available currently is Real ale, but in Britain, "ale" is nowadays practically synonymous with " beer". At one time, it was since the Bronze AgeThe Bronze Age is a period in a civilization's development when the most advanced metalworking has developed the techniques of smelting copper from natural outcroppings and alloys it to cast bronze. The Bronze Age is part of the Three-age system for prehi, but it was with the arrival of the Romans and the establishment of the Roman road network, that the first inns, in which the weary traveller could obtain refreshment, began to appear. By the time the Romans left, the beginnings of the modern pub had been established. They became so commonplace that in 965 King Edgar decreed that there should be no more than one alehouse per village. A traveller in the early Middle Ages could obtain overnight accommodation in monasteries, but later a demand for hostelries grew with the popularity of pilgrimages and the increase in merchants travelling the country. The Hostellers of London were granted guild status in 1446 and in 1514 the guild became the Worshipful Company of Innholders.
Traditional English ale was made solely from fermented malt. The practice of adding hops to produce beer was introduced from the Netherlands in the early 15th century. Alehouses would brew their own distinctive ale, but independent breweries began to appear in the late 17th century. By the end of the century almost all beer was brewed by commercial breweries.
The 18th century saw a huge growth in the number of drinking establishments throughout the country, primarily due to the introduction of gin. Gin was brought to England by the Dutch after the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and started to became very popular after the government created a market for grain that was unfit to be used in brewing by allowing unlicensed gin production, whilst imposing a heavy duty on all imported spirits. As thousands of gin-shops sprang up all over England, brewers fought back by increasing the number of alehouses. By 1740 the production of gin had increased to six times that of beer and because of its cheapness it became extremely popular with the poor. Of the 15,000 drinking establishments in London over half were gin-shops. Beer maintained a healthy reputation as it was often safer to drink ale than water, but the drunkenness and resultant lawlessness created by gin, was seen to lead to ruination and degradation of the working classes (the distinction was illustrated by William Hogarth in his engravings Beer Street and Gin Lane). The 1736 Gin Act imposed high taxes on retailers but led to riots in the streets. The prohibitive duty was gradually reduced and finally abolished in 1742. The 1751 Gin Act however was more successful. It forced distillers to sell only to licensed retailers and brought gin-shops under the jurisdiction of local magistrates.