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Times change…during my formative boozing years in the ’70s children were virtually absent from pubs, perhaps allowed in beer gardens at the landlord’s discretion with the strict stipulation of them being ‘seen but not heard’ i.e. sit at the table and be quiet
However, underage drinking in pubs was rife with ID cards being non-existant. Managing to get a pint at 16 or 17 was a sought after goal seen as a coming-of-age badge-of-honour, goals I scored repeatedly being tall and prematurely rugged at that tender age.
Back then there was an amusing TV advert for Whitbread Trophy Bitter featuring the actor Brian Glover taking his just-turned-18 son for his ‘first pint’ and giving him fatherly advice like ‘take it slowly, don’t rush’. On entering the pub the locals welcome the lad with an ‘evening [name], brought the old man for a pint have you’. Wouldn’t pass the censors now
There’s numerous old beer ads on Youtube but I couldn’t find that one unfortunately.
As for children in pubs nowadays I agree with Corker’s wet-pub food-pub rule.
I’m fairly sure some mainland European countries allow purchase of beer and wine at 16
See the section on Europe here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_drinking_age
I wasn’t aware that European countries have in general been raising the minimum age in recent years.
21 in the USA, blimey. Trump’s a teetotaler…nuff said
Interesting that in the USA an individual state could lower the age and accept an 8% cut in highway funding from federal government. You’d think that at least some of the shortfall could be made back by an increased tax take on alcohol sales that would surely go up along with related ‘booze tourism’ that would no doubt spring up. There must be a reason nobody’s tried it.
In Japan’s konbini (the ubiquitous convenience stores) there is sometimes an option to confirm that you are of age that pops up on the till screen. It seems to on a trust basis with us foreigners but whether that same trust is extended to locals I don’t know.
I wonder how often 16 year olds here end up having a drink with a meal. It certainly worked for this lot:
“Times change…during my formative boozing years in the ’70s children were virtually absent from pubs, perhaps allowed in beer gardens at the landlord’s discretion with the strict stipulation of them being ‘seen but not heard'”.
Yes, maybe we do have to recognise it is a generational change. Parents today have no qualms about taking children into pubs whereas the people in my parents generation (by and large) didn’t do so.
I visited two pubs in Southport yesterday. One is a wet pub, the other does food. But both have a no children inside the pub rule, clearly advertised on their doors. Perhaps a little bit surprising in the case of the pub which does food but I have seen the rule enforced there.
The wet pub is The Lakeside Inn, on the front and not far from the currently closed pier. It is one of several pubs in the country to claim the disputed title of “The Smallest Pub In Britain”. It is small inside but the outdoor tables do increase its serving area. And the recent trend for micropubs has muddied the waters quite a lot regarding the title.
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