Today’s book is Victorian Pubs, by Mark Girouard. Softcover published 1984 by Yale University Press; first published in 1975. Cover photo shows The Warrington Hotel, Washington Crescent, Maida Vale.
From the publisher:
In Victorian London the reckless abundance of pubs brought comfort, glitter and variety to the drab lives of the poor and a flush of righteous anger to the solemn faces of the Temperance reformers. The agitators made important gains but never achieved the total prohibition they sought.
Yet it was not a simple matter of drunkenness versus sobriety. In their heyday in the 1890s London pubs were rich in architectural beauty and in the colourful, often bizarre, characters who served and drank in them. The Temperance platform was based on a misunderstanding of social and economic changes that had taken place to metamorphose the intimate tavern of the first decades of the century into the various forms it took later on, a development that owed much to the influence of the gin palace. If the men who created pubs at this time were often unscrupulous and flashy, the needs for which they found it profitable to cater were very real, and their contribution to the quality of London life was enormous.
This book celebrates the rise and laments the fall of the Victorian pub by looking at buildings, builders, landlords and users with the eye of a social and architectural historian. The main emphasis is on London but there is also a final chapter covering in less detail the rest of England and Ireland. — from back cover.
Sumptuously illustrated with photos, plans, designs, drawings, and advertisements, Victorian Pubs vividly showcases the ornate woodwork, brightly glowing gas lamps, rich stained glass, pool tables, musical acts, and convivial atmosphere that made the pubs so inviting.
* * *
Also currently in stock at BrainiacBooks.com:
Behind Bars: The Straight-Up Tales of a Big-City Bartender
* * *
If you are interested in more particulars about the Book of the Day or any of our other featured books, search our store at BrainiacBooks.com for the title. If the book is still in our stock, you’ll be taken to the page for that title.
, and remained her friend until Woolf’s death.
The author of this posthumously published narrative, a close friend and confidant of Edward VIII, kept a diary of the events that led up to the 1936 voluntary renunciation of the British throne by the reigning monarch. Edward wanted to marry Wallis Simpson, an American socialite who was twice divorced, but the British government was opposed.
Brainiac Books 