Their Manners. British habits: on the culture of behavior in an English pub

Information about British pubs abounds, but if you’re new to the UK (or just new to pubs), you may find some things confusing. Even ordering a drink is not an easy task.

You probably already know that drinks (and often food) have to be ordered and paid for right at the bar. But did you know that in a pub there is no queue in the usual sense? People don’t line up. You just go to any free place at the bar and the bartenders will sort out who came first. If the bar is crowded, try to get as close as possible and take the vacant seat. Sometimes you can slightly raise your hand (more effective if it contains money or a card) – but professional bartenders know how to determine the order of service quite accurately. If you are suddenly asked what you want to order before someone you think has been standing longer, it is polite to point to that person and say, “They were before me” or “They were here first”.

Recently, there has been a new habit of lining up at the counter. This infuriates the regulars. It’s so contrary to pub culture that there’s even a page on X (formerly Twitter) where they post examples of such queues. My advice is not to do this. You’ll immediately give yourself away as a newcomer, and the bartenders don’t like that either.

It’s hard to believe, but the ability for any adult over the age of 18 to order freely at a bar is a relatively new phenomenon. I remember well the days when women were forbidden to buy drinks from the bar. I was born near Newcastle, in the North East of England, in a mainly working-class neighborhood. Pubs used to have two areas – the lounge bar and the public bar. The former was quieter, and women would sometimes come up to the bar to order drinks, though this was frowned upon. But in the public bar, where men usually stood, drinking, talking, watching horse racing or dog racing on TV and checking the betting odds, women were strictly forbidden to approach the bar.

In 1982, a high-profile lawsuit broke out: lawyer Tess Gill and journalist Anna Coote were kicked out of a London pub for standing at the bar with their male colleagues. The reason was a century-old law that made it illegal to serve women in a pub. The women won their case and the law was repealed. However, in the north-east of the country in the mid-1980s, keeping women off the bar was still the norm.

For my 18th birthday, I got a membership to the local Working Men’s Club from my father. He insisted: even though I thought the rule about women at the bar was silly, I shouldn’t go near the bar so as not to embarrass him in front of the other members.

These clubs appeared in the 19th century in industrial areas, especially in the north of England. They still exist, although you are unlikely to find them in the south of the country. They were originally conceived as a place of recreation and education for workers and their families, but now they are more like ordinary social clubs. Women members of the Working Men’s Clubs were only granted equal rights with men in 2007 – after a campaign that lasted thirty years!

When I was young, I used to enjoy going to such clubs to play bingo and watch “turns” – that’s what in my native dialect (Geordie, Newcastle) they call small performances. These can be professional or amateur acts: comedians, magicians, ventriloquists, singers. Comedian Peter Kay made a wonderful series called Phoenix Nights about a fictional working men’s club in Bolton (near Manchester). If you want to find out what a working men’s club is like but don’t plan to travel north, check out this series. The ‘turns’ viewers in the Phoenix Nights series were ordinary people, not actors. Many of them thought they were watching a real show, and their reactions were real. The same technique was used by Sean Baker in the movie Anora – the scene in the Russian restaurant “Tatiana”, where Toros, Garnik, Igor and Eni are looking for Vanya, was filmed in such a way that the staff and guests did not know that it was a shooting of a feature film.

So, let’s say you do make it to the counter. What do you want to order? Personally, I like beer. Women are often told that drinking a pint is “unfeminine”, but I sometimes order one. If you want less, don’t ask for a half pint – in the noise the bartender can only hear the pint and will pour you a full one. It’s better to just say: a half of lager or IPA and so on. If you order a Guinness, start with it, especially if you’re getting something else – it takes longer to pour (two pints). If you’re driving or don’t want to drink alcohol, try lime and soda – I think it’s better than most sodas. And if you want a snack, order the pork scratchings , which are salty fried pork skin. Sounds awful, but it tastes great. The perfect beer appetizer.

Cheers!