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30-05-2011, 10:00
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Pub numbers. Pub closures. A very topical topic. But one that's been kicking around for longer than my lifetime.


http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FClVrn00u5M/Tdum4UgFqWI/AAAAAAAAH8Q/12di3ZVS57k/s320/Cunninghams_Pale_Ale_1958.JPG (http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FClVrn00u5M/Tdum4UgFqWI/AAAAAAAAH8Q/12di3ZVS57k/s1600/Cunninghams_Pale_Ale_1958.JPG)
This is a very specific look at pubs in a particular Lancashire town. In particular, how many of them there were. I'm bringing this quite specific account because it's typical of the developments in pub numbers across the UK in the second half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th. The same pieces of legislation had much the same effect everywhere. Principally, a sharp reduction in the number of pubs and virtually now new licences ever issued.

At the time this piece was written in the late 1930's, there were 304 pubs in Bolton.



"In this book historical material is only being used to illustrate facts about the contemporary pub, and not for the sake of trying to include a "history of the pub" as such. Now, in order to understand more fully the factors of pub distribution, and to deal with the basis of the different types of pub that are examined later, we require some relevant history.

Some Worktown pubs can be traced back from before the Industrial Revolution. There is a list of 61 names and addresses of pubs existing in 1824. Nineteen of these are still in existence, same names and addresses.

Mackies Worktown Directory and Almanack for 1849 gives the following list:

Inns 117
Beerhouses 188
Beerhouses supposed to exist without a licence 15
Inns and Beerhouses where thieves and prostitutes resort 20
Inns and Beerhouses where gambling is practised 13
Inns and Beerhouses having musical entertainments 14

That is, ignoring the pubs without licences, Worktown had one more licence in 1848 than in 1937. Only, then there were 170 inhabitants per pub, now 559.

Said Mr. Taylor, Coroner for the Borough, 1848, in a speech to the licensing magistrates:


These ale and beerhouses would hold every man, woman, and child in the Borough . . . there is a drinking place for every 25 houses . . . such are the present resources for selling drink — or poison — some called it by one name, some by the other.
By 1854 there were another 25 beerhouses in existence, though the number of full licences had remained the same; and the absolute number of pubs continued to rise, until in 1869 there were 452 of them.

By then there was also a powerful and militant temperance movement in existence. At a packed meeting of 2,000 people in the new Temperance Hall the Rev. C. Garrett declaimed "No working man in Lancashire need be without clothes, but if he will insist in clothing the landlord and landlady in purple and fine linen, he must be content to remain in poverty and rags". Since 1830 there had been no restrictions whatever on the issue of beer licences; this policy remained the same for 39 years, when the Act of 1869 empowered the magistrates to refuse to grant the renewal or issue of beer licences; and another Act of 1872 still further restricted the conditions of issue and renewal of licences. The general basis of the present day licensing system had been established. From that time it is possible to trace statistically the ratio between pub and population variation.

Though in 1869 there were nearly half as many pubs again as there had been in existence twenty years earlier, the amount of full licences had only increased by 6, from 117 to 123. Next year, when the Act came into force, 69 beerhouses were abolished right away. The diagram opposite shows that the population: pub ratio has never subsequently decreased, steadily rising from 210 people per pub in 1870 to its 1935 figure of 559.

For nearly thirty years after the new act came into force, the absolute number of pubs continued to fall, while the population was still rising. In 1898 the borough boundaries were enlarged, which besides adding to the population increased the number of pubs by 61. (The break in the curves on the diagram, that are joined by dotted lines, indicate this.) For a few years the absolute number of pubs increased again slightly, but after 1903 began a long, steady fall, decreasing on an average by about three pubs every year. And in 1928, after a period of stagnation, the population too began to fall."
"The Pub and the People" by Mass Observation, 1943 (reprinted 1987), page 73.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HmwO3TrfcVQ/TdyVUGwDx_I/AAAAAAAAH8Y/-YFvE5RgxNI/s640/Pub_graph.jpg (http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HmwO3TrfcVQ/TdyVUGwDx_I/AAAAAAAAH8Y/-YFvE5RgxNI/s1600/Pub_graph.jpg)


The Beer Act of 1830 ushered in an, historically considered, untypically liberal licensing regime. Basically anyone could open a beer house, that is a pub that only sold beer and no spirits. Unsurprisingly, the number of pubs rocketed. From the 1869 Act mentioned onwards, increasingly strict legislation was introduced, mostly designed to close beer houses. It was a task that continued into the 1980's. Sometime around then beer houses finally disappear from the licensing statistics, having fallen to just a couple of hundred in the 1970's. As you can see from the table below.

You'll notice that Bolton was very close to the national average for the number of pubs per head of population in the 1930's: 1 per 559 people, when in 1938 the average was 519.

Pubs in England and Wales
Date
fully-licensed pub
beer house


Total Pubs
clubs


Total on Licences


Off Licences


On and Off licences


population


pop. per pub
1900






102,189




..
..


30,515,000


299
1905






99,478


6,589


106,067


25,405


124,883




1910






92,484


7,536


100,020


24,438


116,922


33,651,600


364
1915






86,626


8,902


95,528


23,202


109,828




1920






83,432


8,994


92,426


22,198


105,630


35,230,200


422
1931


57,072


19,814


76,886


14,377


91,263


22,105


113,368


39,988,000


520
1938


56,173


17,747


73,920


16,951


90,871


22,052


112,923


38,348,400


519
1941


56,961


17,249


74,210


15,864


90,074


21,756


111,830


41,748,000


563
1951


59,757


13,664


73,421


19,511


92,932


23,669


116,601


43,815,000


597
1961


64,570


4,366


68,936


24,418


93,354


23,934


117,288


46,196,000


670
1965


65,353


1,217


66,570


23,598


96,157


26,352


122,509


45,870,100


689
1971


63,640


447


64,087


26,548


101,863


28,166


130,029


49,152,000


767
1976


64,666


361


65,027


28,203


108,905


32,595


141,500


49,184,500


756
1982






68,373


30,269


121,232


39,362


160,594


49,634,000


726
1985






70,331


30,277


125,871


42,646


168,517


49,763,600


708
1991






74,299


28,999


134,404


47,944


182,348


51,099,000


688
1994






75,522


28,520


135,451


47,735


183,186


41,620,500


551
1995






75,392


28,277


133,711


45,986


179,697


51,820,600


687
1998






77,934


26,461


134,174


45,425


179,599


52,421,400


673
2000






77,876


25,032


131,682


45,450


177,132


52,942,800


680
2001






78,540


25,785


132,293


44,696


176,989


52,211,000


665
2003






81,933


23,912


135,307


47,478


182,785




2004






81,455


23,664


133,283


46,582


179,865




Sources:
Statistical Handbook of the British Beer and Pub Association 2005, page 62
Statistical Handbook 1974, page 48
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