Personality and prejudice
The April newsletter for Boak & Bailey’s beer blog.
Personality and prejudice
Is Falmouth still a destination?
On the blog
This is our second newsletter via Substack. We're now also using Substack Notes, a sort of Twitter-alike, to share shorter items between newsletters.
Personality and prejudice
There's no excuse for a pub displaying racist symbols.
Quite apart from the legalities, it's clearly designed to send a message: this our place; you are not welcome here.
The problem is that we do expect pubs to have ‘personality’.
Here's something we said in our book 20th Century Pub:
“There is a General philosophical agreement that the pub is a vital part of creating and sustaining community, but at the same time it seems to us that sometimes that sense of community is created through exclusion, whether overtly, or in that subtle game of passive-aggressive signals at which the English excel. It might be a hard stare and some muttered backchat, a sign forbidding ‘Work Clothes and Football Colours’, or something stronger, but we all know where we do and do not feel welcome. Who is us and who is them, where is ours and where is theirs?”
Where is the line between personality and prejudice?
A collection of non-racist dolls on display? Creepy, probably, but not unacceptable.
A display of rugby memorabilia? You might argue that it sends a signal about masculinity. It might make some people question whether they’d be welcome. But it doesn’t, in itself, exclude you on the basis of who you are.
An abundance of flags of St George? Enough to make people look for other signs and signals, perhaps, such as upcoming gigs by skinhead ska bands. Or even to check out the landlord's Facebook page which might turn out to be pitched somewhere to the right of Moseley.
Pro- or anti-Brexit propaganda lying about the place? We don't go to the pub to dwell on politics so we'd find it off-putting; but less so, of course, if it happened to be the viewpoint we agreed with. See also: party political signs or symbols. But none of these aren’t over that line, in our opinion.
‘Informative’ anti-vaccine posters on the walls? Repellent, to us, and not very welcoming, but not illegal.
What about posters saying ‘Everyone welcome’, stating that homophobia, transphobia and racism won't be tolerated? You might feel excluded by these if you're a homophobic, transphobic racist. But all these signs ask is that you resist the urge to express those views for the time it takes you to drink a pint or two. Talk about something else. Beer is a good topic. Or you might decide to go to a pub you have reason to believe will be more tolerant of your intolerance.
As we've acknowledged before, it's easy for us to overlook some signals that are across the line. Being white, straight and middle-aged we're rarely the target of prejudice. Even between us, Ray is less likely to notice when a pub is aggressively masculine, and might even feel quite comfortable there among the other balding blokes.
Many people do not have that privilege.
The good news is, publicans don't really have to think too hard about most of this stuff. Because there are laws that draw the lines.
The Equalities Act sets out protected characteristics. Broadly, they’re things people are (age, ethnicity, disability, sexuality) rather than things they choose e.g. which football team to support – so ‘home fans only’ is fine.
You even get a warning if you judge it wrong, giving you a chance to fix the problem. Or you can dig your heels in and decide to be a martyr about it.
And, unfortunately, dog whistles still exist.
But nobody is really confused about this, are they? It's just that some have an interest in pretending there are grey areas or ‘debates’ to be had. That pub wanted to send signals to racists, and those it hoped to exclude, and has done so very effectively.
Is Falmouth still a beer geek destination?
We made our first joint post-pandemic trip to Cornwall last weekend, staying in Falmouth with friends, and took the chance to survey its pubs.
Back in 2014, when we lived in Penzance, we declared it a beer geek destination. It had a bona fide craft beer bar, like something transplanted from London; several great real ale pubs; and Beerwolf, a mix of both, plus a bookshop.
In the near-decade (!) since there have been some changes. Hand Bar has gone, closing on New Year’s Eve 2019, dodging the bullet of the pandemic altogether. And Verdant has landed on the scene, operating a nationally-renowned craft brewery from an industrial estate in Penryn, about a mile out of town.
Otherwise, though, we felt quite at home in a familiar landscape.
Starting at The Front, we enjoyed one of life’s greatest pleasures: a Cornish pasty from a shop round the corner with a pint of cask ale. Porter, in this instance, from Verdant – and very good, too; almost Five Points Railway Porter good, but not quite.
The Chain Locker, the flagship St Austell pub in town, continues to be… weird. It’s like an expensive Wetherspoon pub with a confusing mix of locals, yachty types, and tourists:
“Zese ‘scampi’ – zey are boiled or…?”
“They’re deep fried in batter. From frozen. Would you like me to recommend a good seafood restaurant?”
But despite the plastic nautical tat, the beer was excellent, and we were especially intrigued by St Austell’s new (to us) pale ale Anthem, which has a lot of the zing of Proper Job at a lower ABV.
Beerwolf was the same as ever: a bit too cool for us, with something of a boys’ club atmosphere behind the bar. And the Penzance Brewing Co beer didn’t taste quite right either, as if something, somewhere, needed cleaning. But it’s such a nice space.
The good news is that when we drank Penzance Brewing Co Potion 9 at The Seaview Inn, it tasted as wonderful as ever. This pub wasn’t really on our radar before. When we last visited, we weren’t excited by the beer or the atmosphere. It certainly didn’t feel worth the schlep up the hill. This time, though, it felt rather magical: the fabled ‘proper pub’.
We wouldn’t have chosen The Moth & Moon ourselves but let our hosts lead us there. It’s a cosy space with a tiny bar and a staircase that might be a challenge at the end of a session. There were beers from Treens and Atlantic, in good condition, and we’d definitely stop here again.
So, yes, Falmouth is still a great place to go for a pub crawl, where you can drink beer from most of the main Cornish breweries in characterful surroundings.
We’ll leave it to those on the ground (hello, Darren!) to confirm whether anywhere else in Cornwall also now offers the same density of decent pubs and beer.
On the blog
The month’s big post, at least in terms of time and effort on our part, was about The Palace Hotel in Bristol. It’s a grand, gorgeous, currently closed pub whose history intertwines with that of the railways.
After a visit to Manchester, we wrote about the city’s beautiful, characterful city centre pubs. It’s always tricky to write about Manchester and can sometimes feel a bit like prodding a wasp’s nest. Here, we tried to be honest, and there’s a reason we didn’t call it ‘The ultimate insider’s guide to Manchester pubs’. And yet…
In a quick, rather heartfelt blog post, we reflected on the positive role beer plays in our lives, and why it shouldn’t feel like a chore or obligation. Alan used the word ‘prop’ here, with concern, suggesting (if we read it right) that beer shouldn’t be anybody’s main hobby. We’d disagree with that because… it’s none of our business. Let beer be as important as it needs to be, as long as you’re happy and healthy.
We also turned out our regular Saturday morning links round-ups. Once again, we have to say, there’s a lot of good writing around at the moment. Enough that we don’t always feel we can include everything.
There was some exclusive stuff for Patreon supporters, too, including an observation on two Bristol breweries that are (a) going off the boil and (b) going up in our estimations, respectively. We didn’t mean to tease but of course people wanted to know who we meant: it’s Bristol Beer Factory which has come to seem unreliable; and New Bristol which with which we’re increasingly impressed.
And that’s it for now. You can keep in touch via Twitter, Mastodon, Instagram and, of course, her via Notes. ‘Restacks’ would be much appreciated, we suppose we should say.