Does the “lock in” thing still happen? Where the landlord locks the door of the pub with a bunch of people inside at closing time. He’s supposed to buy all the drinks but generous donations were the norm. When he unlocks the door it’s only to let people out.
Temple Bar, Dublin - Wikipedia It’s got it’s own postcode and it’s not a pub, tavern or a bar.
I’d agree with what’s been said so far - bars and pubs are fairly similar in that they have lots of seating, don’t usually have dancefloors and serve drinks from behind a counter (I’m surprised to hear that not everyone calls that counter ‘the bar’, I thought that term was universal? What’s it called in Canada?). I’d say the differences are:
Bars - tend to be more modern, trendy and upmarket. You wouldn’t usually get families going there.
Pubs - tend to be more traditional and homely, where you’d have a conversation over a couple of pints. The ‘public house’ used to be the place where villagers would meet in the evening and where travellers could tether their horses, have a meal and spend the night. They often serve food and families might go there to eat during the day. (Tavern is another word for pub, it’s still used in a lot of pub names, ‘the Alma Tavern’ for instance, but not in regular conversation- you’d never say, ‘let’s go down the tavern for a pint’ or you’d get weird looks).
Clubs - nightclubs… loud music, dancefloor, dark lights, bouncers. Sometimes used to be called discos but you’d get laughed at for using the term nowadays.
As for opening hours, until a few years ago all pubs and bars legally had to stop serving alcohol at 11pm. Tony Blair introduced new licensing laws where pubs/bars can apply and pay for a license to stay open later. Most places are now open until midnight on Fridays and Saturdays, some stay open til 1am or 2am now. Pubs sometimes close early at 10.30 on Sundays simply because people don’t tend to drink late on Sundays anyway. And as has been mentioned, the British drinking culture is quite different to Europe or North America - traditionally in England you’d have dinner early, go to the pub at 8, drink until 11, then go home. With the later licenses we’re starting to eat and drink later but it’d still be very unusual to head out as late as 11 unless you were going clubbing afterwards.
No it doesn’t. It has a postcode, but not all to itself.
The new legislation took the magistrates out of the licensing process – it’s all dealt with by the local council, now. Also, where before the landlord had to apply (and pay for) several different licences (one to serve food, another for live music, yet another for dancing), it’s now all part of one “tick the boxes” licence application.
The difference it’s made to opening hours is that instead of being bound by statutory opening hours and applying for an extension as and when desired, the landlord can – within certain limits – decide his own opening hours: as long as he specifies them on the application. When the new licensing came in, the pub on the corner of our street applied to stay open until 3.00 am, with music till 2.00 – naturally, everyone living nearby objected. At the application hearing, though, the landlord explained that he had no intention of staying open that late except on very rare occasions – New Year, perhaps – and that all he really wanted on a regular basis was an extra half hour on the drinking-up time, which nobody had any problem with.
There once, I believe, a particular distinction between ‘pub’, ‘tavern’ and ‘inn’, and it was to do with whether the establishment provided food and/or boarding. No cite, I’m afraid, I can’t remember where I read this, other than it was not online!
The licensed hours for pubs were, and in most cases still are, only until that time on Sundays (and Good Friday).
It’s worth noting that most of the main recipients of 24-hour licences were supermarkets, now able to sell alchohol around the clock.
WotNot thanks for clarifying the new legislation. Obviously, I was a bit out of date.
Bam Boo Gut I was not aware that the ‘lock in’ concept involved the landlord buying all the drinks (at least technically speaking). My understanding was that the landlord could, if he wished to do so, close the doors of his pub, declare that he was no longer serving to ‘the public’, and that he was now having a private party for the people who were on his premises ‘after hours’. They could carry on buying drinks as before. This was known as a ‘lock in’. I’ve only experienced this once, and as far as knew at the time (or know now) there was nothing illegal about it. More well-informed minds may come along and correct me.
A few years ago the government moved to liberalise the licensing laws, declaring that it would foster a more relaxed drinking culture. Once the novelty of late opening, or all-day opening wore off, most pubs found they weren’t selling any more than they had before, and their staffing costs had risen without any compensating increase in takings. Many went back to their old opening hours, or something resembling them. A few city centre drinking places find it profitable to open all day and most of the night, but not many.
Arguably the only effect has been to move back the chucking-out hour, and the disorder that comes with it, from 11:00 to 1:00 or 2:00.
I’ve been at lock-ins loads of times in 2 or 3 different pubs. Once the non-regulars had left the landlord would close the curtains and turn off the exterior lights so that it would look closed. Everyone still paid for drinks in the normal way which probably made it technically illegal. The strangest lock-in was on a Sunday afternoon at a pub that usually closes from 3:00pm til 6:00pm. We thought it was strange that the curtains were shut and the front door locked, but they didn’t mind when we came in the side door. These were perfectly legal operating hours, but they declared it a private lock-in so the customers could smoke!
Another thing about pubs vs. bars is that pubs are often located out in the suburbs. It’s not unusual to find a pub on an ordinary suburban road with few or no other shops or establishments in the area. Whereas bars tend to be in town centres, among all the other nightlife. I guess this is part of why pubs don’t tend to stay open late - there is not much demand for it at the level of the “local”, and so while city centre pubs do sometimes have later hours now, we still don’t tend to think of pubs as late night venues. They are places you go in the day or in the evening.
the wikipedia entries for the three terms suggest you are right: a public alehouse was open to the public, whereas a tavern was run as a private enterprise (sort of like a permanent lock-in I guess). Taverns were not allowed to offer lodging; a pub that offered lodging was called an inn. All of them could serve food.
When I was a kid, I lived in North London.
I heard blokes saying “let’s have a drink at the boozer”
If I was centuries old, no doubt they would be talking about the inn.
You don’t seriously drink in The Temple Bar though do you? I was going to guess The Dice Bar but I don’t know if that’s open again.
Someone at Oxford came up with the “Ab Fab” rule for figuring out the difference between a bar and a pub: if you could imagine Patsy and Edina drinking there, it’s a bar, otherwise it’s a pub. I suppose it works; I can’t imagine most pubs keep a stock of Bollinger on hand (not that most bars in Oxford would either, I guess).
But funny, if you want to look in the phone book to find a bar, you have to look under “Taverns.” At least in this area you do.
Phone books are on their way out anyway.
Here, the Yellow Pages has sections for ‘Pubs’, ‘Bars & Wine Bars’, ‘Night clubs and bars’, and best of all ‘Hotels & inns’ 
I am sure that when I was touring around Scotland in the 1960’s some pubs were called “hotels”, even though they didn’t provide accommodation.
Perhaps they used to, and had retained the name?
Oh, the physical counter is called the bar, and the person behind it is the bartender or whatever variant you want (barwoman, barman, etc). It’s just that there’s no point talking about the counter unless you happen to already be inside the establishment!
I’d agree, although around here, a pub could be called a bar too, just because it’s a place that serves alcohol. Frankly, a pub-style place in Canada is a theme bar; the theme being British or Irish! As opposed to a sports bar or jazz bar. If I were to call a place a bar instead of a club or pub, it’s usually a place where you could sit down, maybe have some limited selection of food, but probably not, and people are more likely to drink mixed drinks/cocktails than beer. Unless it’s a wine bar, or something. Actually, sports bars tend to be a little pub-like.
Around here, it’s a particular type of bar that tries to imitate the local pubs you have in the UK. It will have the same opening hours as any other bar (legally, IIRC, the limits are 11am to 3am, but some only open for supper or whatever depending on location/demand). Beer is the main drink, though it will serve pretty much anything, and usually food is available at least at meal times until perhaps 10pm if not all night. Lots of tables, perhaps a small dance floor, and open-mic comedy or music nights, perhaps trivial nights, wing night, etc.
Ditto. Though you’ll get bouncers at the more popular bars and pubs as well, due to demand.
As I said, here most people don’t even head out until 10:30 or 11, often because they’ve been eating until then (late suppers are common, we never eat before 7-8pm), and pre-drinking to keep costs down. Last call is around 2:30am, and you get kicked out at 3. There are some after-hours places, but I’ve actually never been to one and don’t know how they work. Seeing people smashed out of their gourds at 9pm in Brighton was weird for me, but I guess with an earlier drinking culture, it’s bound to happen. It was just unfortunate that my husband kept working until 9-10pm most evenings!
Presumably because, until 1976, the major loophole in the Sunday licensing laws in Scotland was that only hotels could serve alcohol on Sundays.