The politics of drinking
             October 15, 2024

The return to the local

This article first appeared in the Propel Info newsletter on March 3, 2023

The clue is in the name. I’m not sure how long “local” has been a synonym for “pub”, but the fact that arguably the best history of the public house, by Paul Jennings, is called The Local, suggests it gets to the essence of the institution. So too does the fact that Maurice Gorham’s ground-breaking attempt, in 1939, to articulate what was important about pubs takes the same title.

Using a pub more than a short walk from your home may, indeed, be a relatively modern phenomenon, and perhaps not deeply ingrained. This was recently exposed, of course, by the shift of city centre office staff to working from home. Necessitated by the pandemic, it seems to have stuck. People are, at any rate, going into the office a lot less.

This is a concern for hospitality operators, generally larger companies, that have built their model on what were busy central locations, a concern fuelled by the impact of the recent rail strikes that gave people another reason to stay at home. It’s likely, though they may be too diplomatic to shout about it, that a lot of pubs, restaurants and coffee shops based in residential neighbourhoods have done quite well out of this, perhaps feeling that, for once, events have turned in their direction.

Indeed, the various lockdowns brought a greater appreciation of those local businesses that provided a sense of social connection, not to mention beer, through those strange days of isolation. People came to feel they should support those closest. And this feeling too seems to have stuck.

At least, it’s stuck with me. I’ve always liked to roam about, trying different pubs. I still do that, it’s my job. But off duty, although I live only a 15-minute walk to the centre of town, I’ve found myself using two pubs much more than any others. One is a bit more than 100 yards away, the other a bit less than 200 yards. I’m using yards here rather than metres not because I’m old, which I am, but to compare it with some fascinating stats from my (current) favourite book, Mass Observation’s The Pub and the People. 

Its detailed analysis of pub-going dates from 1936, but as far as I know, it’s not been repeated. It finds that regulars are reluctant to walk more than about 300 yards to the pub. The only exceptions are people who’ve recently moved out of the area, and those meeting friends and lovers.

Have we changed so much? Of course, there were more pubs in those days. But even in 1936, the researchers worried that magistrates were refusing to grant licences on new housing developments, depriving people of a local. That trend accelerated after the Second World War, and I’ve often wondered whether the problem with pubs is not that there are too many of them, but they’re not in the right places. Food-led new-builds on the outskirts of towns – by Marston’s, for instance – seem to recognise this, but they don’t quite fill the gap.

In the 500-year history of the pub as we know it, destination outlets (not counting inns for travellers) are an extremely recent idea. The heart of pubness lies in it being “the local” in the strictest sense, and there’s still a demand. Micropubs have seized on the opportunity of opening in secondary locations outside of town centres. They are replacing traditional pubs that have closed because there isn’t enough custom to support such a large and complex operation with high overheads.

Micropubs, though, are small and light and fit for purpose. A rough count from the Micropub Magazine’s listing suggests numbers are nearing 900 across England and Wales, equivalent to a large pubco – though not in terms of trading area, obviously. There could be many more, but they’re excluded from many urban areas by high rents.

It’s worth looking at their offer. Originally, micropubs targeted older male drinkers who’d lost their local. So, they sold cask ale and little else. But increasingly they’ve diversified, embracing the gin boom, adding craft beer taps and even cooking hot snacks, attracting a wide variety of customers from their immediate neighbourhood.

Beer still tends to be at the core of it, but the inscription “NFL” (No Flipping Lager) on the wall of the first micropub, the Butchers Arms in Herne, no longer applies. Success is not automatic. To survive, they have to be good at what they do, and that, these days, is true of any local. My two both serve great beer, and one has an excellent Caribbean kitchen. Why do I need to go further?

Phil Mellows, March 3, 2023

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