illustrating the decline of the British traditional watering hole.
I'd be curious to know more in depth about the causes behind this. Maybe alcohol consumption in the UK overall is declining?
A combination of that (particularly amongst the young) and a number of other factors that contribute to the recent figures of 5 pubs and inn closing in England per week.
Expensive to drink in such an establishment due to large Brewery mark-ups, high tax element and having to compete with cheap booze from supermarkets, often retailed as a loss-leader, though this practice has been prohibited now I believe.
More awareness of health issues with regular drinking. Lunch time down the boozer now seems to be frowned upon and even a gross misconduct offence in the workplace.
Less heavy industry and manual labour that demands fluids to be replaced after a hard shift
More regard for and awareness of our drinking and driving laws, which has added to the problems of many rural establishments. For example, three of my four offspring that have driving licences will not touch a drop if driving, and they are just normal sociable post-grads 23-32, and the same applies to their mates.
Smoking on premises ban. Though mayhap this be balanced by those who prefer not to have to deal with passive smoking whilst drinking.
Equality! Gone are the days when a worker would drink half his pay packet and hand a minimum of his wage to the little wifey at home.
The internet! Why make the effort of going down the boozer to talk bollocks with regulars when one can talk bollocks with others of other locales and nations via TeamSpeak and the like whilst gaming in one's own home!
It is commonly thought over here that drinking is excessive and a problem but when one consider that the small village of 180 souls I lived in had three pubs, (now one) and my nearest city, Worcester in 1921 with a population of 40k had 147 pubs! 14 of them in a small area that is now a multiple retail park.
I'm off to grab a beer after that Panzer
Would be interesting to read what the situation is Stateside.