Journey's End?

Samuel Johnson had it right in 1776: '... There is nothing that has yet been contrived by man, by which so much happiness is produced as by a good tavern or inn...'. A century or so later Frederick W. Hackwood wrote in his 1909 book, "Inns, Ales and Drinking Customs of Old England" , a rather splendid tome also on this [one of my favourite] subject; he says, and I quote: '... In England the public-house is as universal as the place of worship; and under healthy conditions is a natural and useful institution...' [he was English after all and should be given some leeway for conflating all of the countries of this archipelago into his own, if only for leaving us this fine and useful book].

Alas, how times have changed in these last two hundred and fifty years: the sentiments of both men, as well as those of us more modern types of a certain age, are now poorly served by the rag-tag remnants of what was once one of the crown jewels of these isles, the pub. And the destruction of this venerable institution has taken less than a quarter of a century, its seeds sown a mere three decades since. What remains is a trade that is largely economically unviable to all but the corporate clowns who have taken advantage of the Draconian British tax laws that apply to the licensing trade and ironically, the relaxing of licensing hours, which whilst a minor irritant in the day, at least guaranteed a pub could be found open at regular hours of the day and evening, wherever one found oneself.

There are a few outposts left out there - little oases where you can still go just for a pint and a jangle, a game of cards or darts, and where you are un-fussed by paying in advance for your drink or having to dodge 'servers' dishing out food all over the place. But without support from governments and councils alike, these too will wither and die. If this travesty is allowed to happen, we will have lost one of the few '...natural and useful institution(s)...' still unique to these shores. Imagine Spain without its tapas bars, or Greece without tavernas: Italy sans trattorie or France with no café culture: unthinkable.

And whilst we as tourists travel to these countries, and these institutions are exactly what we are looking for as travellers, as much as museums, art galleries or beaches; the same is equally true of visitors to Britain: it is no accident there are as many 'traditional British Pubs' abroad as there are left here: Denmark being just one case in point. Letting pub culture die is a sin on so many levels, period; but the only thing that will stop this terminal decline is with the help of those with the legislative resources and the will to do so... 

"The world's an inn, and death the journey's end." Dryden