Another article I read called the pub "England's living room". It fits the stories my brother told as he used to work in England (we're from the Netherlands). He'd describe that workers would immediately continue to the pub after work, after which their wife would bring a home-cooked meal directly to the pub. And the children might visit for an hour or so too.
Anyway, different times. Some trends I'm spotting in the Netherlands that I suspect would also apply to the UK:
Young people drink far less than before. When they do drink, they may first home drink cheaply and only then attend a pub (or club) extremely late at night. Others rarely attend a pub at all and prefer infrequent big events like concerts, where often they pop a cheap XTC pill and drink two sodas.
And yet another group are truly "digital natives", my nephew is one of them. Their idea of a great Saturday night is to play a multiplayer game online. They never go anywhere, they rarely ever meet new people.
Still, it's not just young people. Over here middle-aged (and older) people also seem to come far less than before. I think this has to do with life being so damn fast and busy, it's much different compared to a few decades earlier.
You can't really stop it, times change. Still it saddens me to see another socially important physical place go the way of the dodo.
Anyway, different times. Some trends I'm spotting in the Netherlands that I suspect would also apply to the UK:
Young people drink far less than before. When they do drink, they may first home drink cheaply and only then attend a pub (or club) extremely late at night. Others rarely attend a pub at all and prefer infrequent big events like concerts, where often they pop a cheap XTC pill and drink two sodas.
And yet another group are truly "digital natives", my nephew is one of them. Their idea of a great Saturday night is to play a multiplayer game online. They never go anywhere, they rarely ever meet new people.
Still, it's not just young people. Over here middle-aged (and older) people also seem to come far less than before. I think this has to do with life being so damn fast and busy, it's much different compared to a few decades earlier.
You can't really stop it, times change. Still it saddens me to see another socially important physical place go the way of the dodo.