Eating out

Eating out

A pub is a traditional British institution. It is impossible to imagine Britain without pubs. It is public place and at the same time it is rather like someone’s house. The main business in pubs is selling drinks to people, there are always plenty to choose from, but the most popular is beer. One thing you may discover is that some pubs have   drinks and little else, but others have more to offer such as food, music or accommodation. One reason for this is that what we now call pubs used to be various kinds of places such  as alehouses and inns.

Alehouses were simple places where working men met in the evening to drink beer, and even today some small local pubs are a bit like this-quiet, rather private places where local people meet in the evening for a drink.

Inns, however, were places where travelers could stop, rest and stay overnight. In the days before modern transport such places were of course important; you could get warm, have a good meal, feed the horses and so on.

Many of today’s pubs are in fact still inns. Many of these old places have changed a lot. Some alehouses have become very comfortable and expensive and some inns no longer take guests and provide much food. Old buildings have been changed into pubs and new pubs have been built too. The result of all this is that nowadays there are lots of places. All called pubs, of many different kinds- large and small, new and old, in cities and in the countryside, and even in places where nobody seems to live at all.

Naturally, one of the things that people enjoy most about pubs is having a drink in company. But there are other things that attract people to pubs. Here you may find games machines and music.

Many pubs are interesting buildings, in a pleasant environment, or both. If you are not interested in buildings or history you might still enjoy visiting a pub which has an attractive garden or a good view. It is not difficult to find these in the countryside, and those that are near rivers and canals often have a special character of their own. And they have such names as:

The Boat

The Swan

The Anchor

The Jolly Sailor

Golden Lion

Greyhound

Rainbow Inn

Robin Hind

Kings Amis

Forest View

Green Man

Most pubs offer the opportunity to escape from crowds of tourist and to see something really British from the inside.