History of pubs and the Oldest Pubs in Britain

When looking at the History of Pubs within Britain (the section of the video to which myself and Hannah are focusing on) I came across an article which presents examplesof the oldest pubs in Britain. I thought this was a good article as we could use some of the examples shown to contextualize the section of the video regarding the history of pubs.

The list of pubs demonstrates how public houses are embedded and entrenched not only within British society, but British history. Some of these pubs date back over one thousand years, for example Ye Olde Fighting Cocks in St Albans, Hertfordshire which was established during the 900s AD. This demonstrates that certain pubs are quintessential elements of certain communities which may have detrimental effects on such communities if those pubs were to close due to the struggle of the industry as discussed in previous blog posts.

In future blog posts I shall be investigating what provisions are in place if any to preserve pubs not only in terms of architectural sites but also as individual businesses as well as what historical movements may have been seen or acknowledged in these pubs.




http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/pubs/11739014/Britains-oldest-pubs-in-pictures.html?frame=3375190

Pubs closing down (film)

Sorry this is a bit late, I got caught up with family stuff over the weekend 

Despite the fact that there there are 48,000 pubs still in existence in England, they are closing at the rate of 4 a week. This is the highest rate of closure since the 1904 Compensation Act saw 10% of pubs forced to close. These pubs rarely reopen as nowadays most are converted to residential or retail use.This is problem as pubs tend to be at the centre of many social communities.

So what is to blame for the  decline of this mort British of icons? Rising rents, rates, fuel, property, taxation, lower disposable income which is due to higher household bills and mortgages, the smoking ban, and competition from off-licences, newsagents and supermarkets this alongside the continuing trend for pop up bars all play a part in this decline. 

The reason so many pubs are closing down is a problem is that they play a core roll in keeping alive the UK’a great rural buildings, Pubs play a huge part in holding together communities, they are a staple in the core of British socialising 

As Hilaire Belloc put it in 1912, ‘When you have lost your inns, drown your empty selves, for you will have lost the last of England.’

(Interview questions)

How long have you worked in a pub?

What changes have you seen in the pub culture? 

What do you think about the changes of the pub culture? 

What effect has the closing down of pubs had on you? 

And what effect has it had on the community?

Where does the future lie for pubs in your opinion?

Do you think someone need to be done about it, if so what? 

History of Pubs

British Pubs have always been at the heart of British culture. "Public House" was coined during the 17th century and from then we have seen the British pub become a major figure and where people meet up and socialize. We have seen the growth of pub culture over the years, with many expanding to other cultures as well.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/foodanddrinknews/8287145/The-rise-and-fall-of-the-British-pub.html
This article by the Telegraph shows a timeline of the public house, going through many different acts that were implemented and politicians opinions on the importance of the pub to the community. It also shows a contrasting view on how certain acts have had an impact on the pub leading to the decline of many being forced to close down.

I started reading Barmaids: A History of Women's Work In Pubs by Diane Kirkby. Kirkby talks from experience from her time in Australia and how the barmaid took a cultural and political significance in Australian pub life that went beyond the economic importance of their work. She looks at how the term "barmaid" has seen to deteriorate, it is not used as commonly as it was in the 1950's. Kirkby explores the struggles that women have experienced in working in a bar and stereotypes that may come with the job.  Exploring sexuality within the workplace, different drinking cultures in pubs and race and gender differences too, Kirkby's book seems very interesting regarding how different pubs in separate communities work.

1950s education films

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvqvHu-9kLE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmqNiFJyI28

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUDT59BYkPs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaATD9X4-nM


The above links are some 1950's education films. There quite interesting. You don't need to watch all of them all the way though. I think that they might be a good example of how we should structure our film.

Lost Notes?

Hi All

I have just heard from a very nice lady called Norma Parsad who contacted me to say that she has found someone's coursework and other documents on the ground area of Manor Gardens Welfare Trust (London N7 6LA ) on Monday 21 March 2016.  She doesn't have a contact name for the owner.  Has anyone lost notes? If so, please let me know and I will send you the contact details of who you can call to get them back!

Best wishes

bernadette

IMPORTANT! LOG REQUIRED!

I'm concerned that not everyone is contributing equally to project work. Certainly, some people are not blogging.  For this reason, I am asking EVERYONE on the course to complete a LOG of their contributions to project work. You still have time to build up your contributions, if you have been a slow starter.  However, NO LOG will mean that you run the risk of getting ZERO for your project-mark so you must ensure that you provide full details of your contribution to the project. In particular, you will need to list the PRACTICAL things that you done to IMPLEMENT and realise the project.

You MUST INCLUDE THIS LOG WITHIN YOUR ESSAY, which, as you know, needs to be uploaded to the VLE on the assignment deadline date.

If you need to contact me about this, please do so ASAP.

Sections of the Fim

History of pubs and intro- Jonny + Hannah
The closing down of pubs - Saskia
The different communities surrounding pubs- Tom + Leila
Events + technology - Adam.

Project Rationale

This project aims to draw attention to the importance of pubs as assets to communities and to encourage their preservation.

We will be creating a public information film style video to raise awareness these points, then post it on YouTube to disseminate it out to the public, bringing more attention to this issue and potentially highlighting how people can help to make a difference themselves.

Availability

I am available from around the 11th April onwards!

I really like the idea of the Public Information film, I think we would be able to see the different aspects of what attracts to people to certain pubs and what that pub does for a particular community. There are a lot of pubs in Westminster which target politicians and would be interesting to see if we could go to a few of those and gather some information! I just looked at the page that Tom posted - pub is the hub, and it looks very relevant, so we can try and cooperate that into out project and the importance of pubs to the community.

Public Information Film

I know people were flagging a bit towards the end of the lecture today so we didn't get much of a chance to talk about this idea but I think we all seemed pretty keen on the idea of producing some sort of public information film about pubs, looking specifically at the aspect of pubs and the community.

I'm not sure if we want to do something in a similar style to the public information films (PIF) of 60s/70s/80s, or something more up to date with the same message, but there'd certainly be an aspect of agency in making something in the original style.

I'm not sure if everyone has seen Leila's post from a few days ago, but I think it's pretty perfect for what we're doing so do have a look! Having done a bit of research from that page, it looks like this £3.6 million programme  is a development of an earlier (September 2015) programme and I think that shows that we're really on to something here! Interestingly, seems to be very similar to earlier initiatives relating to the creation of community libraries which, coincidentally, my parents have been very involved in (Grappenhall Community Library).

The basic premise seems to be to encourage people to create community pubs, which seems to follow the premise of them being important to communities. The Plunkett Foundation is mentioned on the press release and seems to help communities create cooperatives. With specific regards to pubs, pub is the hub looks like a goldmine for our project!

It also turns out that there's a pub in Nunhead that was the first community owned pub in London after being the first bought using the 'Community Right to Bid', so I think we can definitely pay a visit there. We could even talk to them about the possibility of screening our film once it's finished.

Anyway, I know it's early days for this idea but would be great if we can all have a think about it over the weekend, maybe just looking at a few old PIFs or looking at a couple of the links in this post. I know we all have essays but would be great to be able to develop this more on Monday.

On the topic of Monday's meeting, the surveillance project are screening their project in the refectory from 11ish apparently, so think I thought we could meet there at 2 to show some support and then get planning.

Have a good weekend guys, Tom x

Easter Availability

Just thought it might be helpful to work out when we're all around over Easter so that we can plan when to get things done. Just leave a comment with any dates that you're unavailable for.

I'm away 23rd to 27th March, and then 7-11 April. Saturday's also aren't great for me as I work 2:30-10:30.

The Community Pub Business Support Programme

Last week the government decided to support and help people to take control of the local pubs. They created a new programme. 

Have a look: 

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-36-million-programme-to-help-communities-take-control-of-their-local-pub

Rough project ideas (incomplete, please comment) :)

We will be doing a video project in regards with the communities of pubs and the links of this to everyday life and the importance of pub culture in Britain. We shall begin the video by asking different people what their pubs mean to them. I was also thinking (as ludicrous as it sounds) to hopefully meet up with the politician of the pubs, Nigel Farage, and discuss with him about the importance of pubs in Britain as this would be a great insight into the political values of pubs. Ii also think it'd be a good idea to look into pubs as a political sphere, is it where people go to share political values and ideals? i'm sure there will be a pub which is known as a Labour/Conservative pub. Maybe even also comparing British pubs to those abroad (for those with experience in pubs abroad).

Articles

Articles on government protection of pubs


http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/jan/26/english-pubs-important-communities-protected-government-kris-hopkins




http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/government-will-help-you-to-take-over-a-community-pub-or-maybe-even-the-shop-pool-or-library-8648033.html


About how people in pubs can turn into clans, forcing someone out the pub for political reasons. The same can be said in footballing instances, eg: if a rival fan enters a rivals pub

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/mar/22/farage-calls-anti-ukip-protesters-who-forced-him-out-of-pub-scum

Pubs and Communities

After today's lecture we discussed the importance of the community to pub culture. Traditionally there were many working men's pubs where community values and ties were enshrined in this particular setting. The pub can be seen as a place where people meet up as a social "club". It would be interesting to see whether the same cultural values that were traditionally seen to be associated with pub culture still exist through a timeline of photos.

In the run up to the EU elections last year, politicians like Nigel Farage have been seen campaigning in pubs to show that they are sill in touch with the normal person, they still go down to the pub to have a pint of beer and interact with the locals.

In this article written by the BBC http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-25864207 we can see that many politicians gather to discuss ideas and briefings. This can be because the pub setting is seen as a more informal place, where  in comparison to the houses of parliament. The Red Lion is seen as popular pub for politicians, a pub where many important decisions were made. As said in the video Charlie Whelan said The Red Lion was the pub where he told Tony Blair that England were not joining the euro.

The Importance of Pubs as Communities

Think we've narrowed down to looking at pubs as communities and how the decline in pubs is affecting these communities.

Let's have a think about this specifically over the weekend, do some posts and meet on monday to bring together ideas and plan what we're going to do - early ideas being some sort of exhibition.

Pub Crawl and Photo-essay Idea

Building on what both Tom and Bernadette have suggested in regards to a pub tour and the photo-essay suggestion perhaps we could do an amalgamation of the two? We could possibly arrange a tour of a variety of pubs and once in there observe the differences between them by taking photographs of the drinks offered, the clientele, the general atmosphere and what events the pubs may have in order to attract customers, i.e. karaoke. This could be achieved by taking photos in each establishment, developed and then put on display possibly? This is only a suggestion however I do feel we are starting to narrowing down our options to reach our final project idea. I've attached a link to a website about the Jack the Ripper pub crawls just to help put the idea into context.

https://foursquare.com/chuckdouglas/list/the-jack-the-ripper-pub-crawl

'A Day In The Life of Your Local'

Before seeing Bernadette's idea for realisation, and following on from the conversation Jonny and I had had on the blog, I'd been thinking more about a potential idea.

We could choose a number of pubs and do the one photo per hour idea that Jonny had, and looking at the variety of people who come in during the day, perhaps with photos / photoessays / interviews through which we can look at the regulars / patrons of the pubs. We could create, in effect, a exportable package that is offered to pubs, with them being able to have A Day In The Life of The Rose exhibition or display in the pub. That's perhaps a sideline, but through looking at the findings we could hopefully see how pubs transcend / adhere to class structures, as well as bringing a sense of community back to pubs, having said that we feel many have become commercialised and perhaps not seen as people's 'second lounge' any more.

I'd been mulling this over whilst at work last night and perhaps haven't articulated it in the best of ways so apologies for that, haven't had chance to post until now.

Anyway, I feel like there is really something in the idea posted by Bernadette. I know 'New School Economics Goldsmiths' recently planned a 'Not So Economic Pub Crawl', perhaps we could look at a similar kind of event highlighting social or economic differences at pubs.

Let's have a think and discuss in the project planning session tomorrow, see you all then!

Idea for realisation?

Since you seem to be struggling to come up with an idea here, I wondered what you might think about turning a 'pub crawl' into a kind of guided event - something like an alternative public guided tour of pubs which looks at the different characteristics of different pubs. You could have a mixture of real/ sociological research and mythical or unverifiable information. It could be delivered (tongue in cheek) to people wanting to find out more about pub culture for their citizenship tests or as alternative London guide for new students. E.g the Jack the Ripper tour ends up in the pub that he's supposed to have drunk at in the east end. It could mix interesting facts with stories and made up stuff and could move between particular pubs - eg historically interesting pubs / pubs associated with different communities/ rough pubs etc. You could co-write a guided tour and film it. Lots of artists have used the 'alternative' guided tour as a structure for their work e.g Janet Cardiff’s Artangel audio walk, The Missing Voice: Case Study B (1999), guides visitors on a physical and psychological journey through the streets of Spitalfields. Just a thought but maybe it will get some ideas flowing.

Also the Situationists took seriously the value of 'psycho-geography' as a mechanism for disrupting the way that we merely consume the 'spectacle' and structures of the city. That could also be a fruitful route for developing the project's rationale in more depth.

To strengthen your rationale further, you could look at the Mass Observation project which was started in the post-war period and I mentioned in earlier lectures. Situating it like this could help cast the project in a longer trajectory, linking it to other (dis)similar projects which then help to justify and bolster the work you're doing here - by creating a kind of intellectual lineage for it.

Also do check out Google Scholar - there's a huge amount of material on the British pub there that you can use to tease out the rationale a bit more.

Alcohol in the coffee shops

Last week Hannah posted the article about the decline of pubs. One of the reasons as was mentioned in the article is restaurants and cafes.

In this article, the writer talks about the new British nation as a coffee nation. Andy Harrison, chief executive of Whitbread, talks about replacing pubs in Britain because of coffee shops. 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/leisure/11084328/Why-coffee-shops-are-replacing-pubs-in-Britain.html

But coffee shops were decided to merge the two British cultures, coffee and alcohol, you can see how drinking culture is part of the British life.

It is quite interesting to look for example to the new suggestion of the Pret a Manager. They decided to sell alcohol and to extend their opening hours till night.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3463146/Starbucks-Pret-sell-ALCOHOL-bid-lure-late-night-drinkers-away-pubs.html

Another example is Starbucks. They open their new branch at Covent Garden, where they have a dinner menu and sell alcohol.

I think this may cause for competition for pubs and in the future can be the reason to close many pubs. 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/11942540/Is-this-the-Starbucks-store-of-the-future.html

Do Pubs In Fact Shape Individual Attitudes?

The article posted refers to a recent 2016 Oxford University study which concluded that those who have a local pub in a close vicinity to their homes tend to be happier people. The article claimed that those who have a regular and visit a close pub generally have more friends, enhanced social skills and drink more in moderation.

When I came across this article it reminded me of our possible rationale of whether it is the pub that makes the person or the person that makes the pub. The article suggests that visiting a local pub indirectly transforms people, supporting the notion that it is the pub that makes the people.

Perhaps this blog post contrasts well with the one which I did previously regarding rough pubs, in that the environment to which one immerses themselves in a social context has effects regarding the way in which they act and feel in general life. Perhaps it's something to keep in mind when considering our final project.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3415011/Living-near-pub-really-does-make-happy-People-regularly-visit-friends-better-life-satisfaction-drink-moderation.html

Making it Public

Hi Guys,

Been trying to have a think over the weekend about how we could make public the research we do about the relationship between people and pubs. First thoughts so just go with it for now!

First thought was something about somehow making people at certain pubs aware of who the 'locals' were, maybe at different times / different days. Could bring people together somehow to see who they're sharing a 'lounge' with, as Jonny said that many people see the pub as a second lounge for themselves.

Second thought was some kind of exhibition or public awareness about different people in the same pubs, like some sort of photoessay looking at diversity or pubs / a trend spotted in them. Don't know if we'd find diversity or trends until we'd carried out the research. Eg are there pubs in Central who have traders drinking in the morning, then students during the day and office workers at night?

Early thoughts, but there might be something there - let me know what you think!

Tom x

Live music pubs closing

There recently have been a large amount of  the closing down of pubs that play music in London.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/34343040/why-the-uks-small-music-venues-are-under-threat

I think that it would be interesting to explore this and the effects that it might have on playing music that isn't live.
Also I think that it is important to note that in small pubs and bars an atmosphere for small 
and rising bands is created. This adds to an area’s ‘local character’ it creates musical history that is irreplaceable. This social aspect of independent venues, along with the relationships that derive from it, is the seed-bed from which a town or city’s musical reputation grows. England used to be renowned for its music acts, but in resent years there has been a decline in this, perhaps one of the reasons is the closing down of bars/pubs? 

Politics of Pubs in a public space

Hey Guys,

We need to determine how we are going to turn the research we have gathered into a visual idea and how we are going to take it into a public space! We said that we were all going to go into different types of pubs and see how they present themselves and the types of people that visit them and if they hold any nights which may entice people to go in e.g. quizzes or open mics, but what else could we do? Does anyone have any suggestions?

Pubs and Class

As Adam had said in his previous post "Observations" we saw in Weatherspoon's on the cover of the magazine it had a photo of 6 working class men. However, this is not an actual representation of the customers that go to Weatherspoon's. There are many different pubs which target particular consumers, whether it be a sporting crown, family, business etc.

It would be interesting to see the correlation between different types of pubs and whether the sort of people that visit a particular pub come from a certain class and whether this is reflected by the way the pub presents itself. Does it sell particular drinks, is the decor laid out in a certain way etc.

Observations

Right guys, just been to a few pubs this week (experiencing) and last night I went to Brockley Barge, Wetherspoons. I ended up drinking with one of the manager who is a friend of the friend. He lives above the Barge in a flat and only people who work for Wetherspoons are allowed to live there. I found this mad. On top of this the rent is only £35 per week! It just goes to show the perks of working for a big chain such as Wetherspoons.

Also that magazine we picked up from Wetherspoons last week has gone walkabouts, but i'll pick another one up. Basically a lot of relevant stuff in there. For example on the front cover there's 6 white, working class males. But I think this misrepresents many of their chain pubs, in Brockley Barge I have seen businessmen in suits having meetings, and the same can be said for the Wetherspoons near Trafalgar Square. Also, many of their customers are not white males, it's drawing all types of customers in regardless of skin tone/class.

I know it's a late idea, but we could say a small bit on the importance of live music to the pubs business and how interested the customers are at open mic nights for example. All around New Cross there are open mic nights every night of the week, so they are clearly an important part of the pub culture. Not only is it good for business but it also helps performers, it's beneficial to both.

Rough Pubs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDt8ZeZ79cA

The link I have displayed is a YouTube link to a TV show entitled "Britain's Toughest Pubs". The short exert of the show focuses on a pub called the Tavern on the Hill in Walthamstow, explaining the characteristics of the pub itself as well as the clientele, with a few anecdotes from times gone by thrown in for good measure.

Pubs as such are very common in a number of areas and seem to pride themselves on their tough reputation.

It's easy to reach the conclusion that an exclusive demographic is associate with establishments such as this pub, for example big men, covered in tattoos, shaved heads who have a cockney twang that would put Ray Winstone to shame. It occurred to me that weather a video such as this could serve as evidence that the overall characteristics of a pub and the clientele it attracts reflects social and economic structures that exist in the community to which it is situated.

It would be interesting to investigate weather gentrification of certain housing communities is accompanied with gentrification of pubs and how this could effect clientele, business and overall environments of pubs.

The Nature and Decent of the Working Men's Club

Decline of Working Men's Clubs Article.

Above is a link to a Daily Telegraph article written in 2012 regarding the decline of the working men's club. This article concisely outlines the basic history of working men's clubs in that they originally started as establishments near factories and other industrial areas as a means in which working men could meet and socialize.

Also outlined is how part of the decline in working men's clubs could be attributed to late night off-licences and cheap supermarket alcohol. This can relate to the blog post which preceded this which explains the rise of alcohol prices in establishments and pre-drinking being a staple in British drinking culture.

One could argue that the birth and rise of the culture of pre-drinking may be having a detrimental effect on the culture of the working men's club. Interestingly the article states that all members of working men's clubs young and old are shareholders of the establishment. Furthermore membership is passed on from parents to children and as well as being family friendly places gives clientele a sense of pride and respect in the establishments to which they belong to and associate with. A strict code of conduct within clubs teaches members at a young age the acts which are deemed unacceptable when drinking, something which arguably is missing today.

Decline of Pubs

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/oct/13/the-death-and-life-of-a-great-british-pub

As we discussed, we mentioned the decline of pubs and how many are facing closure. I found this article by the Guardian interesting as it shows us a number of reasons for the decline of pubs. Once many pubs were shut down, they were replaced with houses, community centres, restaurants and cafes. It also delves into the economy and how many pub landlords could make a huge profit margin if they did sell their pubs. It may be interesting to go into different pubs and ask customers if their local pub did shut down would they miss it?

Many pubs in different areas have been shut down, either to refurbish under a new management or to change into a completely different building, with a different purpose. Will the decline in pubs continue?

Time and money in the pubs

I found the article where you can see how much time and money spend Briton in the pubs. 

Quite impressive numbers you can see here.

 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1234059/Average-Briton-spends-year-life-pub.html

Pre-drinking

Pre-Drinking, 

Pre-drinking culture is rife in Britain, as we all know.  This I believe is due to the high costs of drinks in bars.  below are some statistics I found from 2008 to 2013

Beer duty increased by 42%

* Beer duty revenues increased by only 12%

* Beer consumption fell by 16%

* 7,000 pubs closed

* 58,000 jobs were lost

I found this article which explains the difference in pre-drinking culture in the UK compared to USA.

http://www.bowdoinorient.com/article/1411

To summarise the article, it said that the Brits have a particularly relaxed view on drinking in general due to the drinking age being 18, and people strating to drink much younger then that. It  also said that the Brits tend to drink more then the US.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/universityeducation/student-life/10860479/Young-people-pre-drink-out-of-fear-of-nightclubs.html

The artical above rights that many people pre drink so they can face the chaos of nightclubs. Im not sure if I agree with all of the artical, but its an intresting read. 

Pub talk

As we said it our meeting yesterday, pubs are a seen as a part of everyday British life. As we have seen in soaps such as Eastenders and Coronation Street, the pub, is where everyone meets to socialise and catch up with one another. Although some local pubs are still the same, the function of a pub and who it targets as the customer has changed considerably. This can be due to a number of different factors such as geographical location, class, gender etc.

In New Cross, there are a variety of different pubs which can be arguably said to draw in different consumers. As we were saying yesterday, depending on what pub or bar we went to our drink order may change. But why is this the case? The atmosphere and the people who go to that pub may influence what we order. If i was going for a couple of drinks on a first date, for example, I may order a glass a wine, where in comparison if I was going for a night out, I may order tequila.

As a group, we thought it would be interesting to interview and video customers in different pubs, and see why they chose to order a particular drink, in that particular bar. By doing this we can see if their is any correlation between the type of people that go to certain pub and whether they are conscious of their decision to do so.

Drinking cultures

Hey, guys. I am not sure if it is related exactly to our topic, but I thought maybe it could be interesting. It just my first thoughts when I am thinking about drinking cultures. I am not a British and I do not have the drinking culture as a part of life but it was really interesting for me when I first time arrived in the UK.

It just a little bit of drinking culture in my countries. I have two cultures, Russian and Arabic. They are very different, and in drinking culture too.  As you know Russia is one of the countries where alcohol is a part of culture, there is a stereotype that in the Russia everyone drinks vodka. There is some truth. But in the Russia now the drinking culture is a drinking problem, as I think in many countries.

http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2016/jan/08/how-do-the-uks-new-alcohol-guidelines-compare-with-the-rest-of-the-worlds

For example, when I first time visited the UK, I was surprised. Yes, drinking culture in the Britain is a really powerful and it is a part of the life. But it is a really different from Russian culture. Pubs are everywhere in Britain, I saw the tradition to take lunch on the weekends at pubs with family, like Sunday roast, cyclists, people who go on hikes after the trip are going to pub, on Friday night in central London you can’t find seats in the pubs, everyone spend time with friends or colleges. People in any age going to pubs in Britain.

In Russia we don’t have pubs, bars are not as popular, and in restaurants the alcohol is expensive. We don’t have pubs in the culture, and most of the people drink alone or with friends at home, in Russia it is less enjoyable than in Britain, I guess. Because as I can see in Britain in pubs, people drink less hard liquors, people are coming to talk, to spend a good time, to relax and to drink a beer or cider. Yes, of course, there are the drunk people, but I don’t think as much as you can see in the Russia. In Russian most of the drinking people are men. But it is a problem in Russia because a lot of men are alcoholics. In Britain in the pubs are quite popular happy hours and drinks are cheaper than in any other places, you can eat, drink, relax and have a nice time there. 

You can read a comparative article and see the difference of numbers and percentages between Russians and British:

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/31/russian-men-losing-years-to-vodka

In Arab countries, everything is different from Russia, UK and others. Jordan is a Muslim country, where we don’t have any drinking culture at all and, of course, there are no pubs, in restaurants you can’t find any alcohol menu. But international hotels and some of the places, they serve alcohol but it is taboo, and it is condemned by the people. But by the law it is legal to drink at home, we have some alcohol markets but not in the public.

There is an article about what’s going on in the Saudi Arabia if you are drinking. 
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-34516143