The Smoke Room

A quick walk into the local town for supplies.  I noticed these old 'smoked' glass windows in a dilapidated pub just off the high street and thought how much times had changed.  The demise of the local pub can be traced back to many things; tougher drink drive laws; cheap alcohol available from supermarkets and, as indicated here, the ban on smoking. Ally that to the break from the traditional brewery owned pub to the new business model of leased pubs, owned by property companies who tie their tenants to their products with little margin for profit and you understand why so many pubs have closed in recent years.

When working for the local authority we tended to have two types of pubs.  Those that offered a meal service and gained most of their income from the food they served and those that still retained the notion that people came just to drink.  The latter caused us more problems as they turned increasingly to other forms of mainly noisy entertainment to attract customers.  These attracted complaints from neighbours and while we were keen to support local business where we could, particularly during the summer months the noise nuisance late into the evening could be insufferable.  The relaxation of licensing laws made it even worse.