page_title: Pub
section_title: Licensing laws
hierarchical_section_title: Pub / Licensing laws
caption_attribution_description: English: The interior of a typical English pub, in this case the Penruddocke Arms, which lies between Dinton and Wilton in Wiltshire. Español: Interior de un típico pub inglés, en este caso el establecimiento Penruddocke Arms (posada de gestión familiar en las afueras de Dinton, sobre la carretera Hindon), y situado entre Dinton y Wilton, en Wiltshire, Inglaterra. Información complementaria en http://www.thepenruddockearmsdinton.co.uk/
context_page_description: A pub, or public house, is an establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term public house first appeared in the late 17th century, and was used to differentiate private houses from those which were, quite literally, open to the public as 'alehouses', 'taverns' and 'inns'. By Georgian times it had become common parlance, although taverns, as a distinct establishment, had largely ceased to exist by the beginning of the 19th century. Today, pubs have 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
  The history of pubs can be traced to Roman taverns in Britain, and through Anglo-Saxon alehouses, but it was not until the early 19th century that pubs, as we know them today, first began to appear. The model also became popular in countries and regions of British influence, where pubs are often still considered to be an important aspect of their culture.
context_section_description: There was regulation of public drinking spaces in England from at least the 15th century. In 1496, under, Henry VII, an act was passed, "against vagabonds and beggers" (11 Hen. VII c2), that included a clause empowering two justices of the peace, "to rejecte and put awey comen ale-selling in tounes and places where they shall think convenyent, and to take suertie of the keepers of ale-houses in their gode behavyng by the discrecion of the seid justices, and in the same to be avysed and aggreed at the tyme of their sessions." More legislation was introduced in the following centuries, together with licence fees, which became an income stream for the crown. Tavern owners were required to possess a licence to sell ale, and a separate licence for distilled spirits.
  From the mid-19th century on the opening hours of licensed premises in the UK were restricted.  However licensing was gradually liberalised after the 1960s, until contested licensing applications became very rare, and the remaining administrative function was transferred to Local Authorities in 2005.
  The Wine and Beerhouse Act 1869 reintroduced the stricter controls of the previous century. The sale of beers, wines or spirits required a licence for the premises from the local magistrates. Further provisions regulated gaming, drunkenness, prostitution and undesirable conduct on licensed premises, enforceable by prosecution or more effectively by the landlord under threat of forfeiting his licence. Licences were only granted, transferred or renewed at special Licensing Sessions courts, and were limited to respectable individuals. Often these were ex-servicemen or ex-policemen; retiring to run a pub was popular amongst military officers at the end of their service. Licence conditions varied widely, according to local practice. They would specify permitted hours, which might require Sunday closing, or conversely permit all-night opening near a market. Typically they might require opening throughout the permitted hours, and the provision of food or lavatories. Once obtained, licences were jealously protected by the licensees (who were expected to be generally present, not an absentee owner or company), and even "Occasional Licences" to serve drinks at temporary premises such as fêtes would usually be granted only to existing licensees. Objections might be made by the police, rival landlords or anyone else on the grounds of infractions such as serving drunks, disorderly or dirty premises, or ignoring permitted hours.
  The Sunday Closing (Wales) Act 1881 required the closure of all public houses in Wales on Sundays, and was not repealed until 1961.
  Detailed licensing records were kept, giving the Public House, its address, owner, licensee and misdemeanours of the licensees, often going back for hundreds of years. Many of these records survive and can be viewed, for example, at the London Metropolitan Archives centre. The archives centre is responsible for records being publicized as well as permanently preserving the records. The records remaining permanent for 15–25 years until they are reviewed for the second time.
  A favourite goal of the Temperance movement led by Protestant nonconformists was to sharply reduce the heavy drinking by closing as many pubs as possible. In 1908 Prime Minister H.H. Asquith—although a heavy drinker—took the lead by proposing to close about a third of the 100,000 pubs in England and Wales, with the owners compensated through a new tax on surviving pubs. The brewers controlled the pubs and organized a stiff resistance, supported by the Conservatives, who repeatedly defeated the proposal in the House of Lords. However, the "People's Tax" of 1910 included a stiff tax on pubs. Beer and liquor consumption fell in half from 1900 to 1920, in part because there were many new leisure opportunities.
  The restrictions were tightened by the Defence of the Realm Act of August 1914, which, along with the introduction of rationing and the censorship of the press for wartime purposes, restricted pubs' opening hours to 12 noon–2:30 pm and 6:30 pm–9:30 pm. Open
caption: The interior of a typical British pub
exif: {}