20th Century
The Start of a Century
As sure as night follows day then the pub boom of the 1880s and 90s was followed by bust at the turn of the 20th century. Massively inflated prices fuelled by debt could not be sustained. As with all bubbles, albeit dotcom or property, it didnt take much to burst. Debts had to be repaid and when the income from many pubs could not service the money owed, bankruptcies followed. The breweries which had lent publicans money, or paid over the odds in the clamour to buy up licensed premises, either went bust too or were swallowed up by their competitors.
Apart from the everyday problems of running a business, such as keeping their brewery boss happy, publicans were under pressure from the magistrates who were responsible for the issuing their annual license. The magistrates duty was to ensure that the publican observed the law and kept an orderly house. However many magistrates saw their role as one of suppression.
They refused licenses without explanation or on spurious grounds, completely outside their remit. Some magistrates intervened in matters of planning and design, for example the removal of snugs or private rooms, their judgement based on questions of taste, rather than legality. When brewers applied for new licenses, they were granted on condition that two or three were surrendered. The loser in all this was the publican, who lost his home and his livelihood, without compensation. The brewers often used this as an excuse to close less profitable pubs and were at pains to keep the magistrates happy.
What motivated the magistrates to act in this way is in part a question of class snobbery and lack of understanding. They were invariably middle class and unlikely to use a public house themselves. They were also patronising, believing they were saving the working classes from themselves by removing temptation. Many were involved in the temperance movement and had become magistrates with the intention of restricting the flow of alcohol whenever they could, whereas anyone connected with the drinks trade was barred from becoming a magistrate.
Government must have known and approved of the magistrates actions; after all, it was for the publics own good. But it seems no one ever asked the pub going public what they wanted. As Peter Haydon puts it in his book, The English Pub: A History It could be argued that throughout the history of British civil administration, nowhere else has the British public been so consistently patronised, ignored and ill-served as in the area of public house management between 1897 and 1939. This criticism is not only true of magistrates and government, both local and national, but for the brewers too, whose overriding concern was for their profit margin instead of their customers.
Drunkenness was seen as an affliction, affecting the health and well-being of the nation, rather than a symptom of the poverty and hardship faced by the working classes. Its worth remembering that the new century got off to a shaky start. This was a time of economic slowdown, the Boer War, the death of Queen Victoria; there was unrest in Europe, which ultimately led to the Great War and revolution in Russia.
The style of pubs built at the beginning of the 20th century reflected a more wholesome, romanticised view of the Olde English pub. Gone was the brashness and glitz of the Victorian gin palace. This Ye Olde Merrie Englande theme was played out in several guises, such as the medieval hall of the Coal Hole in the Strand, or the tongue in cheek humour of the Black Friar, at Blackfriars.