Going to the pub? It’s not just about the booze, says Phil Mellows

As the pubs slowly open again, what have we missed? There’s fresh draught beer, of course, but more than that we’re coming to realise that the pub has a bigger part to play in our well-being.

Even before successive lockdowns brought an unwanted experiment in life without pubs, one researcher was uncovering their role in tackling loneliness, a growing problem in the modern world that can have an adverse effect on our mental and physical health.

Loughborough University sociologist Dr Tom Thurnell-Read was charged with the job by the Campaign to End Loneliness and his report, sponsored by Pub is the Hub and brewer Heineken UK, came out earlier this year.

Open Arms pulls together evidence from pub-goers and staff to reveal the host of ways pubs bring people together, providing opportunities for those casual brief encounters that make life meaningful, as well as organised events and activities.

It certainly isn’t just about the booze.

“It’s easy to dismiss brief encounters in the pub as unimportant, but we can’t say what a quick chat can do for someone because people feel loneliness in different ways,” says Tom.

“People who are on their own can easily retreat into themselves and become fearful of social contact and it can become a downward spiral. Any close encounter can be meaningful for them and help keep them socially active and confident.”

While older people living alone were a big focus of the research, carers and mothers too found value in a visit to the pub.

“It gives them something to report, something to talk about to others. These are the small things that keep people feeling positive.”

Tom particularly enjoyed his conversations with people with learning difficulties. “For them, going to the pub made them feel like independent adults.”

Yet he also found groups that felt excluded, “especially in London where you have pubs that have fallen out of synch with their communities. Afro-Caribbean people, for instance, may lose a place to play dominoes when a pub is gentrified.

“You’ll have others who say that the pub isn’t the pub, the way they remember it, but you could also say a lot of pubs have improved in a lot of ways. They’ve become more welcoming to families and people who aren’t drinking.”

Lockdown has been an opportunity for us to reflect on what we value about pubs as social spaces, Tom believes, and it could mean we no longer take them for granted.

“Pubs have come to the forefront of our minds. People talk about what they’re missing, the sociable and welcoming atmosphere, a place where they feel relaxed, where they can be themselves. They are a special case.”

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