Saving an Endangered British Species: The Pub
By DANNY HAKIM

LONDON — One by one, the pubs are disappearing in Hampstead, a jewel-box village of cobbled lanes and Georgian homes that has become one of this city’s most fashionable neighborhoods. The Nags Head has become a realty office. The King of Bohemia is now a clothing shop. The Hare & Hounds has been replaced with an apartment building.

Changing economics and shifting tastes have claimed roughly one out of every five pubs during the last two decades in Britain, and things are growing worse. Since the 2008 financial crisis, 7,000 have shut, leaving some small communities confronting unthinkable: life without a “local,” as pubs are known.

And that has spurred the government into action. New legislation is letting people petition to have a pub designated an “asset of community value,” a status that provides a degree of protection from demolition and helps community groups buy pubs themselves, rather than seeing them get snatched up by real estate developers eager to convert them for other uses or tear them down. Since the Ivy House, a beloved local in south London, became the first to receive the designation last year, roughly 300 others have followed suit.

“The pub, we like to think, is relatively internationally unique, it’s a very traditional thing,” said Brandon Lewis, the Conservative member of Parliament who is the Community Pubs Minister, an office that underscores the special place pubs occupy in British life. “In many communities they are really important, not just because it’s where people come together, but it will be the focal point for fund-raising for the community, for the local football club, for the dance class, for the moms’ coffee morning.”

Still, the traditional pub is being squeezed as never before, even after George Osborne, chancellor of the Exchequer, reversed course last March and reduced the tax paid on every pint of beer, by a penny. Antismoking laws are keeping smokers away. Cut-price beer for sale at supermarkets is eating into business. In London, the upward spiral of real estate prices has made pubs attractive targets for developers.

And then there is a cultural shift on this isle of bitter, porter and stout: People in Britain are drinking about 23 percent less beer than a decade ago, according to the British Beer and Pub Association. Pubs have been trying to take up the slack with other beverages and expanded food menus.

On another level, Britain’s pub trouble is also an echo of the deregulatory fervor of Margaret Thatcher. In the 1980s, her Conservative governmentbroke up the near monopoly that brewers held over pubs. But the breweries were replaced by large, independent companies that have since gobbled up a little over half of the nation’s pubs. These “pubcos” often own the land, determine what beer pubs can sell and can charge high rents. Some amassed their holdings by going into debt and are now selling to the highest bidder to capitalize on their real estate. A proposed parliamentary motion last month decried the profit margins of one pubco, Punch Taverns, calling them “wholly unacceptable.”

“Large pub companies own a lot of property, and there’s a temptation to sell some of those properties off for a quick monetary gain,” said Neil Walker of the Campaign for Real Ale, an advocacy group. Many pubs have been turned into residences or supermarkets, he said.

One battleground here in Hampstead is at the Old White Bear. A handsome, two-chimney building of red brick, the Bear has occupied its spot on Well Road for three centuries. Peter O’Toole, it is said, had to be carried out occasionally in his younger, wilder days. Elizabeth Taylor, who was born in Hampstead, and Richard Burton, who owned a home here, were also visitors, patrons say. Recent guests are said to include Boy George and Liam Gallagher.

But after the Old White Bear was bought by a group of developers through a company on the Isle of Man, 2,000 people signed a petition to save the pub. The Bear has been declared an asset of community value, and the local council has so far refused permission to turn it into a six-bedroom house. Even so, the pub closed on Feb. 2. With the developers determined to fight, the Bear’s future is uncertain.

Guy Wingate, a longtime patron, pointed to Hampstead’s fallen locals. While the village has other pubs, the Old White Bear, he said, had become the center of his community.

“You rip the heart out of that, and we’re either all going to wander the streets like zombies or stay indoors and not see each other ever again,” Mr. Wingate said over coffee at Cafe Rouge, which used to be the Bird in Hand.

The last night of the Old White Bear, a patron was carried in on the shoulders of six staff members. A bartender mimicked an air raid siren. A Husky dozed on the floor. There were speeches and toasts. Jennie Smith, smoking outside, said that she and another regular — her chocolate Labrador, Bentley — were devastated. Bentley had stopped by earlier for a bit of roast beef. As the crowd spilled through the rooms, another patron rose to recite an ode to the Old White Bear.

“Let’s be brave, let’s be bold, let’s believe in this White Bear of old,” he said. “Raise a glass and say, we close tonight, to return another day.”

英酒館快「絕種」 列社區資產保護

英國人以愛上酒館聞名，酒館也是英國的特色之一，觀光客都要去體驗一下。但過去廿年來，英國酒館一家家關，大約關了五分之一，2008年金融危機後，更關了七千家，使一些社區居民面臨沒有酒館的生活。為了拯救瀕臨絕種的酒館，英國政府通過法律，民眾可請願讓一家酒館列為受保護的「社區資產」，以免於被拆除的命運。

紐約時報報導，倫敦的「常春藤之家」酒館去年成為第一家被列為「社區資產」的酒館，至今已有三百家跟進。

擔任社區酒吧部長的保守黨國會議員路易說：「英國酒吧舉世無雙，是珍貴的傳統，許多社區不能沒有酒吧，不僅是聚會場所，也是為社區募款、觀賞足球賽、主婦們早上喝咖啡的地方。」

英國酒館沒落到需要被保護，有幾個原因。禁菸法使吸菸者遠離酒吧；超市啤酒減價促銷，搶了酒館生意；倫敦房價高漲，吸引地產商收購酒吧蓋豪宅。

英國的啤酒文化也起了變化，喝啤酒的人比十年前減少百分之廿三。

酒館的困境，也與已故首相柴契爾夫人1980年代當政時期的自由化脫不了干係。她打破啤酒商對酒吧的獨占，但英國一半以上的酒館被大地產商買下，這些「酒吧公司」擁有酒吧的土地、收取高租金，甚至發行債券，把酒吧賣給出價最高的人。

漢普斯敦的居民正在拯救已有三百年歷史的「老白熊」酒吧，在兩千居民的請願下，已被列為「社區資產」，但仍於本月二日關了。剛去世不久的影星彼得奧圖年少輕狂時經常被抬出這家酒吧；在漢普斯敦出生的已故影星伊麗莎白泰勒和夫婿李察波頓也常光顧。

開發商買下這家酒吧，地方政府雖拒發改建豪宅的許可，但開發商仍在爭取，酒館的前途未卜。

酒吧營業的最後一天，老顧客溫蓋特說，這家酒吧是當地人生活的中心，「以後我們只能在街上遊蕩，或待在家裡，彼此見不到面。」另一名老顧客舉杯說：「我們今晚關門，改天再來。」

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/17/business/international/saving-an-endangered-british-species-the-pub.html

2014-02-18．聯合報．A15．國際．編譯田思怡