frank kogan needs to know the diff between a pub and a bar

The Foundry has plenty seating room to spread out in?

As I said to Matt last night, no old geezers, no pub.

What I think of as the classic model is:

1. an uncarpeted saloon (or public) bar with few tables, often high standy-uppy ones. This is where the serious drinking is done, and where the Real Men are.

2. a carpeted lounge bar where the ladies can sip their gin and tonics accompanied by the unreal men, where you watch your language and sit down at a table and maybe get a bite to eat.

3. possibly some snugs which in my experience are rarely carpeted, poss due to virtual impossibility of getting a vacuum cleaner in and around them.

I suspect the phenomenon of completely carpeted pubs is a fairly recent thing, likely dating somewhere between the 50s and the 70s, when lots of pubs were trying to move upmarket and effectively re-fitted both bars as lounge bars. This may also correspond to larger-scale industrial production of cheaper and more resilient carpets made of modern materials but I know nothing of the history of carpet making and therefore have made this factor up.

I grew up just down the road from Axminster, I've no excuse.

rubbish, there are plenty of places that people class as 'bars' around our way with an abundent amount of old geezers hogging the corners of the bars.

obv brown carpet is the way to go.

Well yeah. The whole idea of wall-to-wall carpet dates from the 50's the the 70's, much less in pubs. That don't make it a good idea. From the 50's to the 70's, wall-to-wall carpet was sometimes even seen in bathrooms. People went goddamn carpet crazy.

Pubs smell romantic and sickly. And sick-y. And like being 17. And like home.

I can't argue with something smelling like home. You love what you love. But my home smells a little less like vomit than yours does, I would guess.

r you might like to say, as Matt and Steve like to, that a pub is a traditional drinking establishment with wood and tables and hand pumps and carpet and (in extreme cases) horse brasses, while a bar is something which looks different and modern.

Or you can say that a pub is an establishment which sets out to accommodate a broad range of its local community while a bar tends to be more demographically focussed. Perhaps that would be better said as "a bar knows the word demogrpahic, a pub won't understand why it's relevant".

The Rosemary Branch in De Beauvoir Town used to have lots of wacky sculpture and painting and that but that seems to have calmed down a lot since it's been operated by the same people as the Swimmer and The Approach.

The Approach has an real actual contemporary art gallery upstairs where you can see proper contemporary art, some of which is really good.

pub explodes

Oooh, that's a good one.

I had no idea the Rosemary Branch had art, although I did win the pub quiz in their once. I gained an odd reputation amongst the collegues I was drinking with as being some kind of pub quiz genius, but I was just luck y with the questions.

So Wetherspoon'ses would be bars, then?

ale is not (cf. v seldom) sold in bars!

haha this could go on for some time.

More arguments for the foundary's pubpshness.

Just because gezzers are shaved bald and rather gay looking does not detract from their geezerishness.

The feeling The Foundry gives me is that it's aimed quite squarely at a Trendy Hoxton demographic. Edgy, y'know.

Ste: but how many types? one's not enough

the thing is that all the factors (architecture/design, 'content'/decor, clientele, range of products on offer, entertainment facilities, general atmos, historical significance etc.) do not stand up on their own as signifiers, but you have to be able to tick enough boxes for a place to be a proper Pub imo.

there, that's my personal opinion.

this argument is a lot like the 'what makes a big club?' argument.