A note on architecture, since we are being all erudite and general today. There is a school of thought that says that pubs built in the sixties are bad. Especially if they were attached to an equally impoverished (architecture wise) housing estate. And there is much to be said for this thesis. However I have a different view. There is no reason why such pubs should necessarily be bad. That said if a squat sixties red brick joint pretends it is an olde worlde pub on the inside it will never work. Plenty of them end up as dingy, fag burned pubs that only the very local and only a few of them like. The dark multi-coloured carpet belongs to the high ceilinged, many roomed pubs of old. If you’ve got large plate glass windows and the general ambience of someone’s front room run with that instead.
Take The Founders Arms – Ythe oung’s pub by the Tate Modern. About seventy percent of the clientelle will be tourists at any given moment. The building goes back to the late sixties. It is a nice pub, plenty of tables, comfy seats and a generous bar. If you tried to dinge it down, put nasty furniture and dark walls on it would not work. Equally the Mrylebone Tup as mentioned last week was shaped like a proper London pub, so don’t go putting in stripped pine. Decor is part of the plan – and if the architecture demands it, do it.