Though this one doesn't sound that unreasonable: you couldn't be open during a riot.
Riots.-Any two justices of the peace acting for any county or place where any riot or tumult happens or is expected to happen may order every licensed person in or near the place where such riot or tumult, happens or is expected to happen to close his premises during any time which the justices may order; and any person who keeps open his premises for the sale of intoxicating liquors during any time at which the justices have ordered them to be closed is liable to a penalty not exceeding £50; and any person acting by the order of any justices may use such force as may be necessary for the purpose of closing such premises.
Brewers' Almanack 1915, page 310.
Not only could the justices tell you to close, they could physically force you to. I wonder when pubs were last forced to close on account of a riot? My guess is that most landlords wouldn't open anyway if there was a riot going on around them.
Next, it's the turn of children.
Children in Bar of Licensed Premises.—Any person who causes or procures or attempts to cause or procure a child under the age of fourteen years, not being a child of the licence holder or a child who is resident but not employed in the licensed premises to go to or be in the bar of any licensed premises (not being railway refreshment rooms or other premises constructed, fitted, and intended to be used in good faith for a purpose to which the holding of a licence is merely auxiliary), except during the hours of closing, or except for the purpose of passing through to some other part of the premises to which there is no other convenient means of access, is liable to a penalty not exceeding £2 for a first offence, and £5 for any subsequent offence.
Brewers' Almanack 1915, pages 310 - 311.
Note the wording. It doesn't say that children weren't allowed on licensed premises. It's just the bar they couldn't go in. Meaning it was fine for kids to be in a room which didn't have a bar.
Note the exceptions: children of the landlord or children who were resident. And then the one that surprised me: railway refreshment rooms, I wonder if that still applies?
You weren't allowed to sell to children, either.
Sale to Children.—Any person who knowingly sends any person under the age of fourteen years to any place where intoxicating liquors are sold or delivered, for the purpose of obtaining any description of intoxicating liquor, except in the manner permitted by law, is liable to a penalty not exceeding £2 for the first offence, and not exceeding £5 for any subsequent offence.
Brewers' Almanack 1915, page 311.
Note the age: 14. The drinking age was only raised to 18 during WW I. You weren't allowed to send anyone under 14 to fetch beer for you. But there's a very important proviso: "except in the manner permitted by law". Because it was still common for people to send their kids to fetch beer. It was OK, as long as a seal was placed on the container. My mum used to fetch beer for her mother in the 1920s. (Mild Old Ale mixed, if you're wondering.)
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Although I regularly saw older women do it when I was a student in Stoke in the early nineties, I've never quite had the nerve myself to go into a pub and ask them to pour draught beer into a jug to take away. The few times I've done it, I've always put the jug in a bag, ordered a couple of pints as normal at the bar and then gone outside and poured it in myself. Despite feeling furtive doing so, I can't really see why a publican might object to the idea, but they would surely now refuse to serve a child who turned up with a jug, seal or no seal. I wonder when that law changed. I suspect in the Czech Republic where takeaway beer jugs are common they wouldn't think twice about filling one for a child to take home to dad.
You'd be lucky to find a railway refreshment room with a licensed bar these days, with the exception of those which have explicitly been converted into pubs.
Take-away beer a perfectly normal thing at American tap rooms of course, either purchasing a jug (the unfortunately named growler) onsite, or bringing your own. When I lived in the US, the routine was a few 7-8% IPA's after work and then get a growler fill to continue the fun at home. Always kept a growler in the car just in case.
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