Not very clean, seems to have been the main complaint. I can understand what they meant. late in the evening, especially if a pub was busy, the staff might not have time to go around collecting glasses, emptying ashtrays and cleaning tables. Which is one of the reasons I always took my empties back to the bar. If you didn't, your table could become completely filled with empty glasses.
"Tourist's eye-view of English pubs
Dirty glasses and full ashtrays are the two main gripes tourists have about English pubs, according to a recent survey carried out by Interflow Ltd., on behalf of Reckitt & Colman Industrial Division. Public houses were under the room-for-improvement section and were, in fact, bettered only by hotels, restaurants and "top-of-the-table” London Airport.
The survey, full title: The Qualitative Survey on the Attitudes of Overseas Tourists to Cleanliness in English Pub Buildings, concluded that although many pubs were thought to be bright and welcoming - and the respondents praised the whole institution of the English pub — some foreigners remarked adversely on the standards of cleanliness encountered in many pubs which they had visited.
Typical of the comments was the statement from an Italian visitor: "I have been to quite a lot of pubs. Sometimes they are very drab and messy and sometimes they are bright and comfortable. I like a pub to have comfortable chairs and carpets. I think when people are in a place with a carpet they do not so easily throw things down, like cigarette packets or ash.”
But let the last word come from a German who remarked: ". . . although the place was rather dirty the beer was very good. They must have looked after their cellar so beautifully they didn't have time to dust.”"
Brewers' Guardian, Volume 99, May 1970, page 34.
At least you don't have to worry about overflowing ashtrays any more. But the weird London thing of not providing beers mats mean that tables in the capital's pubs soon become annoyingly wet.
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12 comments:
I once advised a party of foreign tourists in a Manchester pub that they needed to go to the bar to order drinks after they entered and seated themselves at a table, obviously waiting for a member of staff to come over to them. They would probably have walked out after a while otherwise, no doubt complaining about the rudeness of the staff who had ignored them.
I wonder if my local wetherspoons misread the comments about empty glasses and dirty tables as the way to operate a pub, There not a particully busy branch either just lacking staff and a manager who things cleaning is beneath him. Would not have lasted long in the pub an ex girlfriend and I ran.
As an American I'm clueless, sorry, but do you have rough sense of what share of pubs were of the type that would appeal to tourists? Quaint, historic places, tons of dark wood, dating back to the 1800s or earlier?
Vs. what percentage was more modern, utilitarian places? Not necessarily grungy, but nothing a director would want in their movie?
I wonder if our local weitherspoons have seen the same article and decided that it is the way to run a pub although its not a particully busy pub. Just full of staff that think clearing up is beneath them. The other month they coundnt serve people has they had ran out of glasses as they were piles of them on the tables but it was somebody elses responsibility. I try not to go to any wetherspoons nowadays. They used to be great at one time but they have lost their way when they expanded into the midlands
Since I left the UK 12 years ago, I often go on trips of the mind back to a lovely pub with comfortable seating and great beer. When I've been back to the UK, I've mostly found staff who couldn't care less, filthy tables with sticky beer residue and/ or plates piled high full of pie bits and ketchup, and almost 90's Irish pub levels of fakery. It's highly dispiriting.
Seen that in my local here in Ireland with the head barman or his father the publican having to tell them to come up to the bar itself to order to tourists from the continent.
Oscar
Wait beer mats which are standard in Ireland are not common in London?
I wonder if they asked them about the beer available.
Oscar
When I read comments like this, I remember to be grateful for living in a beautiful village with two functioning pubs, both clean and serving real ale, both free of any tie (although one of them chooses GK as their supplier for some reason, which is a bit annoying). The nearest Spoons to me is in the local town, and it can be a bit grotty at times, but isn't too bad. However, when travelling for work, I have experienced exactly the type of Spoons described, usually in big cities and usually a victim of its own success. But they are still a savior for a sad and lonely road warrior - being able to order your tea and a couple of pints without having to leave, and possibly loose or have to argue for , your seat in a busy city centre pub is a bonus for the working traveller. Now, if they could just invent AI robots you could use the app to summon to come and sit in your seat while you went for a piss, that would be great.
In my experience of the closest Spoons nobody takes your seat when you go to the toilet or order at the bar.
Oscar
I was talking about pubs in general and not just Spoons as being filthy roughed-up sh*t holes; not your tourist board view of what pubs were. You get what you pay for in Spoons. I also used to live in a fine village in the SE with two pubs that suffered the same sticky tables and plates piled high stinking of vinegared chips and left-over pie, miserable bar staff and crap beer.
My experience of Wetherspoons is that quality depends on the manager. Our local Spoons was excellent and the beer choice and quality so good that we voted it into the Good Beer Guide.
Then they changed the manager....
My local spoons former manager ensured that a well run ship was in place including the cask beers.
Oscar
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