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13-09-2017, 10:39
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One night last week, guided by*The Buildings of England, we made our way to the Shakespeare in Redland, Bristol, and gazed upon the ghost of its Bottle & Jug.Bottle & Jug was a phrase we didn’t know six years ago which is why we found this oddly arranged historic sign on the side door of The Crown in Penzance so baffling — ‘Bottle Bar & Jug? Eh?’
https://i2.wp.com/boakandbailey.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/bottle_bar_jug.jpg?resize=433%2C433&ssl=1Sorry this photo is so crap. It’s only from 2011.We were being dim, of course — it’s Bottle & Jug, and then*Bar. Here’s how Francis W.B. Yorke explains it in his manual for pub designers from 1949:

The out-door department, sometimes called*‘off licence’ or ‘off sales’, and formerly known as*‘jug and bottle’ department, is set aside for the sale of intoxicating drinks*‘to be consumed off the premises’, and by law may not be used (as formerly) for the consumption of drink. It may be planned off the general servery, or as a separate unit. It must be in direct communication with the street, quite shut off from drinking areas, and contain no seating. It is the only public room a child under the age of fourteen may enter.
The Shakespeare has a fairly well-preserved Edwardian exterior but much of the interior has been remodelled in 21st century style with every surface either grey paint or bare wood, and partitions removed to make one long bar room.
There are still odd bits to enjoy, though, such as the stained glass signs for LADIES and GENTLEMEN on the toilet doors, for example. Very helpfully for roving pub nerds there are also framed plans of the pub before and after its early 20th century rebuild.
https://i1.wp.com/boakandbailey.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/shakespeare.jpg?resize=650%2C565&ssl=1
That’s how we spotted another lingering relic of the old layout: a narrow corridor of blue and white tiles running from the front door up to the bar. Assuming they are original (they look it) are all that remains of the old Bottle & Jug. They interrupt the floorboards, insisting upon the distinction between rooms that no longer exist, across the distance of a century.
Back before World War I, take-away customers (often kids sent by their parents — the cause of much worry for social campaigners) would come through what is now the main door and, between panels protecting their privacy, and that of sit-in drinkers, and order beer to go at the long counter which serviced all three parts of the pub.
It would be nice if those partitions were still there but in their absence it’s pleasing that the old layout can at least be discerned with some imagination, like the outlines of an Iron Age settlement visible in the bumps and ditches of an English field system.
Bottle & Jug (https://boakandbailey.com/2017/09/bottle-jug/) originally posted at Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog (https://boakandbailey.com)


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