Boak and Bailey's Beer Blog - Announcement: Session #113 — Mass Observation: The Pub
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We’re hosting the 113th edition of The*Session in July and*we’re asking you to go to the pub, observe, and report.
http://i2.wp.com/boakandbailey.com/w...size=144%2C175In the late 1930s a team of social researchers descended on Lancashire and spent several years observing the people of Bolton and Blackpool as they went about their daily lives. As part of that, in 1937 and 1938, they made a special study of pubs, which led to the publication of one of our favourite books of all time, The Pub and The People, in 1943.
This is an extract from a typical entry from the original observation logs, probably from 1938, describing the Vault of a pub in Bolton:
13 men standing, 8 sitting. 4 playing dominoes. 2 of the sitters are postmen.
2 men, about fifty, short, sturdy, caps and scarves, shiny worn blue shirts quarrelling about politics. One keeps saying, ‘If ee don’t like the country why don’t ee go away? No one stops me getting a living.’ Then he suddenly shouts ‘Why shouldn’t the king and queen be there. I’m for them! They should be there.’ … Barman comes round with a small canvas bag, jangling it, asks me if I want a penny draw for a pie. So I put my hand into the bag and get out a worn brass disc about size of a half penny, which says Riggs Pies and has a number in the middle. The draw takes place somewhere else. Number 9 wins… and he gets a small hot pie, the sort you can get for fourpence.
What we want people to do for The Session is to recreate this exercise in 2016: take a notebook to a pub or bar — any one you fancy — and write a note of what you observe.
- How many people are drinking?
- Which beers are on tap, and which are people actually drinking?
- What are they eating?
- How are they passing the time?
- What are the topics of conversation?
- How is the pub decorated?
- How many TVs are there and what are they showing?
- Are there pot plants, parrots, spittoons?
- How many smokers are there? And vapers?
- Is there a dartboard, pool table or quiz machine, and are they in use?
Over the years, people have fretted about Mass Observation’s attitudes to privacy and so, in line with original Mass Observation practice, you might want to anonymise the pub — city centre sports bar, suburban dining pub, industrial estate brewery tap, and so on. And it’s*bad form to give names and details which might allow individuals to be identified from your descriptions.
And an Optional Extra
As a chaser, after your observations, write whatever you like spurred by the idea of ‘The Pub and The People’. Really, whatever you like, as vaguely related to theme as it might be. Or instead of making any observations, even. The main thing is that you feel inspired to write something.
How this Works
Do your observing in the next few weeks, publish your post on or near FRIDAY 1 JULY and let us know about it by Tweeting (@boakandbailey), emailing (contact@boakandbailey.com) or commenting on this post. We’ll publish a round-up in mid-July to allow for stragglers.
If you’ve never taken part in The Session before, or have lapsed, do join in — it doesn’t have to be a huge effort and it’s a great way to connect with other beer bloggers worldwide.
Announcement: Session #113 — Mass Observation: The Pub and The People from Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog - Beer blogging since 2007, covering real ale, craft beer, pubs and British beer history.
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