A pub is a drinking establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term first appeared in the late 17th century, to differentiate private houses from those open to the public as alehouses, taverns and inns. Today, there is no strict definition, but CAMRA states a pub has four characteristics:
- is open to the public without membership or residency
- serves draught beer or cider without requiring food be consumed
- has at least one indoor area not laid out for meals
- allows drinks to be bought at a bar
Soho is an area of the City of Westminster in the West End of London. Originally a fashionable district for the aristocracy, it has been one of the main entertainment districts in the capital since the 19th century.
Clive James was an Australian critic, journalist, broadcaster, writer and lyricist who lived and worked in the United Kingdom from 1962 until his death in 2019. He began his career specialising in literary criticism before becoming television critic for The Observer in 1972, where he made his name for his wry, deadpan humour.
Greene King is a British pub and brewing company founded in 1799, currently based in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk. The company also owns brands including Hungry Horse and Farmhouse Inns, as well as other pubs, restaurants and hotels. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE), until it was acquired by CK Assets in October 2019.
Michael John Heath is a British strip cartoonist and illustrator. He has been cartoon editor of The Spectator since 1991.
Jeffrey Joseph Bernard was an English journalist, best known for his weekly column "Low Life" in The Spectator magazine, and also notorious for a feckless and chaotic career and life of alcohol abuse.
Jeffrey Bernard Is Unwell is a play by Keith Waterhouse about real-life journalist Jeffrey Bernard. Bernard was still alive at the time the play was first performed in the West End in 1989.
Muriel Belcher (1908–1979) was an English nightclub owner and artist's model who founded and managed the private drinking club The Colony Room. The club opened in 1948 at 41 Dean Street, Soho, London and became known as "Muriel's". Its long term popularity amongst London's bohemians lasted for 60 years and is widely credited to the exclusivity resulting from Belcher's charisma, strong personality and daunting door policy as "a tough, sharp-tongued veteran of the Soho drinking club scene".
The Colony Room Club was a private members' drinking club at 41 Dean Street, Soho, London. It was founded and presided over by Muriel Belcher from its inception in 1948 until her death in 1979.
Frank Norman was a British novelist and playwright.
Nuthurst is a village and civil parish in the Horsham district of West Sussex, England. The north of the parish borders Horsham town, with Nuthurst village 3 miles (5 km) south from the border. Within the parish is the estate and largely 19th-century country house of Sedgwick Park.
Greek Street is a street in Soho, London, leading south from Soho Square to Shaftesbury Avenue. The street is famous for its restaurants and cosmopolitan nature.
The French House is a pub and dining room at 49 Dean Street, Soho, London. It was previously known as the York Minster, but was informally called "the French pub" or "the French house" by its regulars. It sells more Ricard than anywhere else in Britain, and only serves beer in half-pints except on 1 April, when a recent custom has been that Suggs serves the first pint of the day.
The filmography of English actor Robert Bathurst comprises both film and television roles spanning almost 30 years. Bathurst made his acting debut for television in 1982 in the never-broadcast pilot episode for the BBC sitcom Blackadder, though his character Prince Henry was recast when the Black Adder series was commissioned. Throughout the rest of the 1980s, Bathurst appeared in episodes of The Lenny Henry Show, Who Dares Wins, The District Nurse, Red Dwarf, and Chelmsford 123, before starring alongside his Cambridge Footlights colleague Stephen Fry in the short-run series Anything More Would Be Greedy. He also appeared in the films Whoops Apocalypse (1986) and Just Ask for Diamond (1988).
Paul Hugh Howard Potts, a British-born poet who lived in British Columbia in his youth, was the author of Dante Called You Beatrice (1960), a memoir of unrequited love. One of the women treated in the memoir was Jean Hore, who married the writer Philip O'Connor but ended up confined as a schizophrenic for over fifty years until her death.
Pamela Jennings (1964–2012), known as Soho Pam, was a homeless English woman who became well known in Soho, London where she begged. She was much loved for her affectionate, polite manner and was the subject of artists and authors.
The Half Moon is a Grade II* listed public house at 10 Half Moon Lane, Herne Hill, London. It is one of only 270 pubs on the Campaign for Real Ale's National Inventory of Historic Pub Interiors, was frequented by the poet and writer Dylan Thomas, and was a noteworthy live music venue for nearly 50 years, hosting three gigs by U2 in 1980. In 2015, The Half Moon Public House was listed by Southwark Council as an Asset of Community Value, and is described by Nikolaus Pevsner as, "a cheerful corner pub of 1896".
The Crooked Billet is a pub at 14–15 Crooked Billet, facing onto Wimbledon Common, Wimbledon, London. The building dates from the early 18th century and became the Crooked Billet during the 1750s. The district of Wimbledon called Crooked Billet may have taken its name from the pub.
In the United Kingdom, racial segregation occurred in pubs, workplaces, shops and other commercial premises, which operated a colour bar where non-white customers were banned from using certain rooms and facilities. Segregation also operated in the 20th century in certain professions, in housing and at Buckingham Palace. There were no British laws requiring racial segregation, but until 1965, there were no laws prohibiting racial segregation either.
Ian David Archibald Board was an English nightclub owner who ran The Colony Room Club in Dean Street in London's Soho district, from 1981 to 1994, having taken it over from Muriel Belcher who founded the private drinking club in 1948.
