A Monday Pint....

Changing routines and economic pressures have reduced the times that pubs are generally open these days. But looking back, the times when it was possible to get a pint were once much more tightly restricted than they are now....

Monday. The start of the working week for so many people. But for many too, a day they don't work due to their shift patterns, or it's their designated day off, or they are retired, or they are on holiday. A day then for many that might fancy a pint to take the edge off a gruelling return to the working week, or a chill out before the return on Tuesday, or simply to enjoy a relaxing drink. But in many places, getting a decent pint of real ale on a Monday (or indeed a Tuesday) is frustratingly often not as straightforward these days as you might expect unless you happen to be in a city centre or a popular tourist area. 

But hang on a minute. Didn't the 2003 Licencing Act, which actually came into effect in 2005, allow pubs to open for 24 hours? Well, technically yes, but in reality very few pubs do so. In practice it means that they can in general open the hours over the course of a 24 hour period that best suits them, subject to approval by the local magistrates court. The reality is as a society we have increasingly become used to expecting things to be available on demand at whatever time we want 24-7, be it watching TV, online banking, shopping, or booking a holiday. So when you fancy a pint and the place you want to go isn't open it can be frustrating, but if you look back over the years, things are a lot more flexible in general than they used to be.

For many years pub opening hours were much more restricted and it is only relatively recently that they have been able to open for longer periods. Going back to when the First World War broke out in 1914, the UK Parliament passed the Defence of the Realm Act. Within it there was a section which related to the hours pubs could sell alcohol, as it was believed that alcohol consumption would interfere with the war effort. And so licensed premises were therefore restricted as to what hours they could open. The Act allowed for opening at lunch time from 11am or 12 noon until 2 or 3pm, and then again in the evening from 5.30 or 6:30 until 10:30pm.

The authorities feared alcohol could undermine the First World War effort

The restrictions on serving alcohol in the UK continued after the end of the First World War, with  similar restrictions being established as a result of the Licensing Act 1921. The law stated that pubs in urban areas could open between 11.30am and 3pm at lunch time, and between 6.30pm and 11pm in the evening. However, pubs in more rural areas could likewise open between 11.30am and 3pm but were restricted to only between 6.30pm until 10pm in the evenings. There were sometimes local exceptions; pubs in market towns could open longer hours if the terms of their charter allowed them to do so on market days, and when I was living in Leeds in the early eighties I can remember catching the bus up to Otley on more than one occasion to take advantage of market day opening hours, and enjoy the rare delight of all day drinking in the likes of the Bay Horse and the Junction.

The Bay Horse, Otley: popular market day watering hole

Elsewhere, for example in the areas around the likes of the Smithfield, Billingsgate, and Spitalfields markets in the City of London where the buying and selling of fresh meat, fish, and produce required working through the early hours of the morning, early morning opening was permitted daily so that the market workers could enjoy a pint or two at the end of their shift. Pubs such as the Market Porter in Borough Market which grew up to satisfy this demand still thrive today.

Sunday opening times back then were more limited, with permitted hours only allowed to be a maximum of five hours divided between 12pm - 3pm and 6pm - 10pm. Hours were even more restricted in Wales and Monmouthshire though, where, with positive support for the Act from the Methodist movement, pubs were banned completely from opening on Sundays. This meant that the only places you could get a drink in these parts were private members clubs who were only permitted to open provided they had obtained permission to serve alcohol from the relevant local licensing authorities. Different restrictions again applied in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Incredibly, the law did not change in the UK throughout the inter-war period, nor during the Second World War, and well into the post-war period. One of the reasons that restrictions were not lifted, despite a Royal Commission which, as long ago as the period between 1929 and 1931, had looked into the efficacy of the British licencing laws was the pervasive and lingering attitude amongst the powers-that-be that public houses, in general, were "disreputable drinking dens" and as such should not be encouraged by permitting them to open any longer than they already did. 

Pubs were often deemed as disreputable places by the authorities

Scotland eventually became the first part of the UK to introduce any changes to these restrictive opening hours. When the new licensing laws set out in the Licensing (Scotland) Act 1976 came into effect in 1977, local authorities in Scotland were given the powers to determine opening hours for their own area. This was a big thing as it was the first time the law had been changed in well over 50 years. However, it still took more than a further 10 years before the restrictive licensing laws were repealed in England and Wales with the passing of the Licensing Act 1988. And so finally, on 21st August 1988, for the first time in almost 75 years, pubs were permitted to remain open throughout the day meaning that the uninterrupted consumption of alcohol was allowed on licensed premises from between 11:00 and 23:00. And then as referred to earlier, November 2005 saw revised rules being introduced which scrapped any hourly limits and allowed pubs to apply for licences which could if they wished include opening for 24 hours each day.

The reality is of course that pubs generally do not open for 24 hours a day, and as mentioned earlier some do not open every day of the week. There are always places you can go though. Wetherspoons, of course, plus chain pubs run by the likes of Greene King, Marstons, and Mitchells & Butlers, as well as many independent brewers who have built up their own pub estate such as Ossett, or family brewers such as Holts, Robinsons, and Samuel Smiths generally open most if not all days of the week. However, drink-led free houses and micropubs where you can often get a beer from the more independent, smaller, and often more interesting brewers do not always do the same.

Three Pigeons, Halifax: An Ossett pub which opens every day

There are a number of reasons for this, generally but not exclusively economic. For those pubs where there is a licensee or manager who lives on the premises, it makes sense to open as any income from customers can be offset against heating, lighting, and other costs that are being incurred anyway. However, where nobody lives on the premises as is the case with many micropubs then the cost of opening up needs to be considered in the light of likely footfall. Many areas of even large towns are quiet once the evening rush has passed on several nights of the week and it is understandable why places may decide it is not worth opening, particularly as customers are also feeling the pressures of increased costs and therefore generally go out less than they used to. And if it means tapping a barrel of cask ale and then nobody comes in, there is the risk of having to throw beer away as it only has a limited shelf life. For a smaller outfit like a micro pub, where it may be a one man operation or maybe it is run by a couple, it may be their only time in the week when they can get some time off, and even then there are likely to be jobs that need to be done behind the scenes. And for those places where additional staff can be called on, there is the cost of wages to be taken into consideration, a factor that is likely to figure more in the thoughts of many of our licenced premises both large and small with the recent increase in the minimum wage adding to the list of spiralling costs they are facing.

It may be down to company policy to open every day or it may be the individual owner who decides they will open anyway, particularly if neighbouring places aren't, reckoning they can bolster their numbers with additional displaced drinkers. At the end of the day, pubs have to decide what hours work best for them and we should respect that. It is usually possible to check in advance when a place is open. Whilst the CAMRA Good Beer Guide hasn't listed opening times since pre-Covid editions, but they generally do in the App, or you can usually check on the pub's website. The pub in the opening image is the Minster in York which according to the App opens at 12 on a lunch time. That said, I recently spent a wet and unpleasant Monday morning wandering around the city and was looking forward to calling in for a pint only to arrive to find it shut. Now this is not to criticise the pub in any way as they had at least put a handwritten note in the window to say that they would be open at 4, just to say that however thoroughly you may check there will inevitably be times when you will be frustrated in your efforts!

With the current economic situation that has seen us lose a number of breweries already this year, and with pubs likewise continuing to close for good at an alarming rate, we should therefore enjoy the moments when they are open, and whilst appreciating that there are many areas particularly in rural areas where the local pubs have closed and there are large beer deserts, in terms of being able to get a pint when we want many of us are in a much better place than were the drinkers for much of the last century....

Follow me on twitter/X: @realalemusic