Pubs used to be 11-3, and 6-11, give or take, whereas High Street restaurants, that can often also serve alcohol and family friendly, are 11-11, so it's not much of a surprise that they're converging, slowly to the same business model: there's not a pub in my area that doesn't do food, or coffee, or indeed breakfast. If you have a building that needs heating 24 hours a day, having revenue for most of that time is going to help, so a small number of those additionally offer free wifi for the WFH types, which actually seems to be beneficial.

Some of those pubs local to me, that have been purchased and gutted by smaller boutique brewery chains, have been turned into something indistinguishable from a coffee shop - the dangling light bulbs, brickwork, copper pipes. Coincidentally, I'm off to my local #1 CAMRA pub later, and it is much like the article describes. A typical pub. Dark wood, central bar, low ceilings, two bars (saloon and public), darts, and one tv screen. And it will be full by mid-afternoon through to the end of the day, which is unusual for pubs now.

It just seems like the main problem for pubs, and in fact, most of British industry, is costs, and that seems to be the exorbitant cost of electricity at the moment.

> So now it’s become a bit more CAMPUB, and campaigns to save the business of public houses itself, the traditional bar games (skittles or bar billiards, anyone?), and the communities that sit in them.

Isn't it the case that the "pub scene" is healthy - revenues and number of pub employees hasn't decayed significantly, but the number of pubs has. A big part of that is people preferring the larger pubs - going to Wetherspoons for a cheaper pint from a wide range of beers (perhaps with food and sports) than a cosy local that is more expensive and has a limited range.

Unfortunately I can't see CAMRA being able to do much about the economics of a small traditional pub vs the current rental or sale value of the building its in.

Pictures of the Princess Louise can be seen here, for those interested https://www.londonpubexplorer.com/central-classics/the-princ...

Sounds like you'd enjoy visiting a pub owned by Samuel Smith.

> Our pubs are havens from the digital world – there are no TVs or background music. The use of mobile phones, laptops and other tech is not allowed in our pubs.

https://samuelsmithsbrewery.co.uk/pubs/

As others say, Londoners/brits make a distinction between “pub” and “sports pub”, the former don’t usually have any TV (or it’s off, only used for big England games when every pub becomes a sports pub).

Contrary to your experience, I’m pretty sure that most pubs are not sports pubs in London

No screens and at most of them no music either. Very few people drinking while standing. Just a pleasant place to have some beers with friends.

When I moved back from London to the US (where I’ve spent 90% of my life) I was so much more distracted by the screens than I had ever been before.

go to smaller pubs. They don’t have the footfall to justify the exorbitant commercial sports license fees and so don’t have screens. Fancier pubs and gastropubs also tend not to have screens

That's a sports pub.

Stay away from sports pubs/bars.

Out of curiosity, I googled several of the pubs he mentioned. All but one* was still around.

*I found a pub called the Ranelagh, but it’s not in Pimlico, so I assume it’s a different one. It was the one he described as “really terrible,” so no big loss, I suppose.

Addendum: the other interesting thing I noticed was the ones he derided as having been “modernized” in the 1960s were also newly renovated today, with airy, Scandinavian, 2020s aesthetics. Presumably because unlike the traditional pubs, the 60s style became dated pretty quickly.

If they can survive being converted in housing stock. They are disappearing fast.

Most of the pubs exist still, I think.

The food thing has always been the case, it’s just that in the past you could make a bit of stew or have some pies in a warmer at the end of the bar, and you could sell them for a reasonable price, and make more profit than you would on same spend on beer (alcohol duty has been around a long time), but now, needs have changed.

That’s come from two directions. First, those pie warmers and stew pots would struggle with modern health and safety rules in relation to food, and compliance with the regs costs more money so you need more expensive product.

Secondly, consumer demand. A lot of central pubs now are dealing with far more tourists than were around in the 1960s as a consequence of cheaper air travel and changing drinking habits of local resident populations. Those two groups mean pubs have had to move to sit down meals, and at a near-restaurant price point. A few go a little under that level (Greene King and Fuller’s for example, they seem to do very well on food at a non-gastro price point), but they always knew food made more money than beer.

I think it interesting that Sam Smith pubs segregate the food. You can’t just order food to your table - you have to go to the dining room. This means intent has to be decided on as you walk in. I like it a bit, but actually, I’d prefer the Fullers experience more, in that if I have a couple of pints and then want to order a battered whitebait with a jenga of chips and some crushed peas, I can do that. :)

You forgot 7: the men with caps and pipes are no longer there because of the smoking ban. It’s just not a proper pub if there’s not some smoke spiralling up to the ceiling.

I moved to the US about a decade ago, but I feel like microbreweries were pretty rare in the UK during the 90's and 00's, I only really came across a couple living in Manchester at the time (a couple more have opened since) while there are several within a couple miles of me in San Francisco.

Most real ale in Britain was brewed in traditional breweries that had been going for a century or more that had either escaped being rolled into one of the majors or revived one of the old breweries abandoned by them, like Black Sheep in the old Lightfoot's Brewery.

By contrast the UK microbreweries often seemed more influenced by the US craft beer style which developed from home brewing since their traditional breweries were all shut down during prohibition.

Princess Louise is still there, same as it always was.

Around the corner is the Hercules Pillars which has been substantially refurbished, but still very comfortable and has some separation going on.

Most of the pubs around Bloomsbury have gone though. There are a few, but hard to keep it all going in an area where a lot of the housing lies empty - just owned by foreign investors, who are using it as a store of value they hope will appreciate faster than other asset classes.

There was one pub not far off TCR that had a nice sofa and fireplace. We'd always have one of us duck out early to secure the spot an hour or two before.