by Mushroom

Created on: August 14, 2008   Last Updated: April 21, 2010

The public house was a Victorian creation which was defined as a house licence to sell intoxicating beverages, prior to its creation it was known as the drink shop or the fuddlers house.

One of the reasons why the public house was a very important Victorian institution was because it was a focal point where peoples social lives converged. It was a community centre which catered for a wide range of clientele having a variety of bars and snugs which gave people the choice of what company they preferred

The public bar catered for manual labourers who worked in factories or on farms, and that was why the drinks were cheaper to purchase in this bar. Originally it had no chairs or tables, and its bare floorboards had a covering of sawdust for those who used the spittoons.

Cheaper still was the Jug and Bottle bar or take-a-way where a receptacle was bought to the bar to be filled with beer. This way of dispensing alcohol was a very effective way of keeping costs to a minimum and even today it's unlikely to be beaten.

Many Victorians enjoyed their privacy drinking in small bars known as snugs, these snugs had small serving hatches through which drinks were passed.
The Saloon bar or lounge had fitted carpets, cosy arm chairs and tables, expensive wall paper, and some Saloon bars had fancy stained glass partitions dividing their bar spaces.

But Victorian pride and joy was under threat with the introduction of public house reform which was spear headed by people like Earl Grey who had a tea named after him. But before these reforms could be implemented the reformers needed away of convincing pressure groups in parliament that there was a need for public house reform.

But this was achieved during the first wold war when a munitions factory was built at Gretna in Scotland which is situated close to the town of Carlisle in north east England. This munitions factory employed thousands of Irish navvies who were earning good money for their labour, hence the need for relaxation during the evening period.

What the reformer needed was a graphic display of alcohol abuse to bring their reforms into force. And this mayhem was created by trains bringing thousands of munition workers into the town of Carlisle during the evening ten minuets before pub closing time. It was this charge to the bar that made many landlords small fortunes by having drinks at the ready lined-up on the bar counter.

Consequently Carlisle became the blue print for public house reform, a range of measures were introduced to curb excessive drinking together with the closure of many of the town's pubs.

It has generally been assumed that these laws were introduced to safeguard the munition workers from over indulgence, but make your own mind up by reading City Under The Influence by James Hunt. For example, giving a man ten minutes to drink a pint of beer was a law based on "how long it took an English pig to eat a bucket of swill."

So why were these harsh measures so successful in creating this twenty first century ghost town ? It was because the men of Carlisle were living in daily fear waiting for their call-up papers to join the many thousands of other soldiers fighting on the front line knowing that they may never return home alive.

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