Pub

by Philip Howell

"Erudite, quirky, and amusing." Sebastian Faulks

Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things.

The pub is an English institution. Yet its history has been obscured by myth and nostalgia. In this unique book, Philip Howell takes the public house as an object, or rather as a series of he takes the pub apart and examines its constituent elements, from pub signs to the bar staff to the calling of “time.” But Pub also explores the hidden features of the pub, such as corporate control, cultural acceptance and exclusion, and the role of the pub in communities.

Genres: Nonfiction

154 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 9, 2025

Reviews

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

The classic pub, with its form, architecture, clientele, expectations, beverages, and legally enforced bedtime. I've gone by the Golden Hind on the bus a few times and wondered what that's all about and now I know that it's an early suburban superpub of a particular type, because all pubs are of a particular type while also being somewhat unique in a way that is strangled by the ownership of brewery owners that was exacerbated under Thatcher. Some pubs don't have a parking lot and some pubs really, really do, so we start there and move inwards, to the bar which isn't mandatory and has a lot to do with 19th century gin palaces, and the loo, which might not have existed for the ladies until the mid-'80s. If the pub serves food, how pretentious is it, and if it's that pretentious, is it really a pub? Pubs were disreputable but now they are considered mandatory and the British government talks about pub deserts, because people need a place to have a pint, because the alternative is going to the supermarket and drinking at home, and is that what society should be? In America, yes; in Britain, no. This was a great edition to the Object Lessons series. Cheers.

[Stuart Hill · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'll admit that what first drew me to this title was the attractive cover design and neat small paperback format. Superficial, for sure, but I then read the blurb, curiously located in the inside cover rather than the rear jacket, and felt it was worthy of further perusal.

It's part of the Object Lessons series which is devoted to the hidden lives of ordinary things and is written by a professor of Historical Geography at Cambridge University which might suggest a book which is worthy, yet ponderous and dull. However, it's written in a very accessible style and made for an informative and enjoyable read.

Whilst not a full history of the subject, it does offer some interesting details about the past and present of the English public house. For example, it doesn't really go back all that far; the term pub seems to date from around 1859. Before that there were a few antecedents: inns, which offered accomodation and food, taverns, where you could partake of wine and food, and alehouses, which were the least classy - drinking dens basically.

It's a nicely organised tome with wittily titled chapter headings. The introduction is called Pre-Loading, a reference to the practice of drinking alcohol before heading out to the pub. It all ends, of course, with Last Orders.

Overall, it offers a really good overview of the subject. I'll definitely consider checking out some of the other books in the series now.