British dubs to British pubs ;-)
- From: The Scarlet Parsnip <The_Scarlet_Parsnip@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 17 Feb 2009 14:20:08 GMT
(heh, heh)
Ah, but this one has something else,' Masters enthused. The heart of
London. The bar is supposed to contain an an-cient stone that marks
the dead centre of the old City. The pa-rade of historical characters
through here has gone unrecorded and barely remarked upon. Why?
Because the pubs of London are taken almost completely for granted by
those who drink in them.' The doctor stabbed a long pale finger at the
air. 'Every single one has a unique and extraordinary history.'
That's true,' Bryant agreed with enthusiasm.'Did you know that the
basement of the Viaduct Tavern in Holborn contains cells from Newgate
Gaol? Its walls have absorbed the tortured cries of a thousand poor
imprisoned souls. These places sur-vived because of geography. The
Tipperary in Fleet Street used to be called The Boar's Head. It was
built in 1605 with stones taken from the Whitefriars Monastery, stones
that al-lowed it to survive unharmed in the raging inferno of the
Great Fire of London. And the Devereux, where we held Oswald's wake,
is named after Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, who was imprisoned in
the Bloody Tower and beheaded. The point Harold is trying to make is
that these places hold the key to our past, and therefore the present.
They're an unappreci-ated indication of who we are, and a sign of all
we've lost and remember fondly, in which bracket I would include
nurses' hats, single railway carriage compartments, quality umbrellas,
the concept of public embarrassment, correct pronunciation and the
ability to tell a child off in the street without risking a
stab-wound.'
'Pubs are just shops that sell booze, Arthur. What's more, they're
dying at a rate of sixty-five a year in London because of property
developers. You're over-egging the pudding as usual;
'Not at all; said Masters, jumping in eagerly. 'Walk the streets of
London, and the only time you'll speak to strangers is when you
apologise for stepping in their path. Public houses act, as their name
implies, as homes for the general populace where opposites can meet
and confront each other without prejudice, on neutral territory This
is why the landlord is re-ferred to as the host, and why rooms in pubs
were always used to hold local inquests, so that the deceased could be
sure of a fair and impartial verdict on his death;
'I think you'll find that the desire for alcohol also plays a part in
their popularity' said May.
'Obviously but there's something more fundamental at the root of it.
Walking into a pub alone is for many young people their first act of
real independence. Such places have had a profound effect on our
society throughout history acting as every kind of salon and meeting
place, from coffeehouse pam-phleteers to the cruelties of the gin
palace. And of course, they reinvent themselves endlessly. Once, where
political and philo-sophical meetings were held, there are now karaoke
andjenga evenings, book readings and sexual-fantasy nights.
The Victoria Vanishes/
by Christopher Fowler
.
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