The British go to the pub in the evening to play games, talk, drink and often to eat.When the Collapse begins, the pub will be the social Centre of their community.
In the Past the beer and ale were the only liquid safe to drink - the water supply was polluted with many waterborne diseases
In my area the public house was the actual home of many single men. It is said that their mothers used to come with clean shirts for them on Sunday morning.
These days when many people no longer cook - their meals are supplied by the Public house.
While working on the Grape harvest in Southern France I met an Irish couple who were following the harvest northward through France. They said they didn't live anywhere and would stay in their local pub until the spring when they could move to southern Italy to begin again.
In the pub several dozen people share the warmth of [usually] an open fire, watch the TV together and spend hours talking setting the world to rights. They will consume vast amounts of high carb beer and give the toilet a lot of heavy use.
Unlike Continental Europe, the British use the pub for shelter, against a miserable winter. Think of all the money saved in heating their homes, which in many cases are only used for sleeping. Some of my neighbours as they come home, park their vans and trucks nip inside for a quick shower, and then walk off to the pub for a bite and a brew.
Do not think for a moment that this is just how the poor live - this social pattern is found throughout all the layers of British life.
Where else would an aristocrat have a drink with the labourers who work on his land?
This social unit of pub life is often generations old as son follows father down at his local. In some areas the pubs are far older than any of the houses in the area. The same rooms have been used for many hundreds of years man and boy. They have just found a Viking ship buried under the carpark of the Railway Inn in the village of Meols, Cheshire. Presumably the Norsemen lived in the same spot and perhaps the pub name will change to mark the discovery!
The unwritten history of the district has been enacted there - in fact in some villages the archers and yeomen of the Middle ages would have mustered there. The Official history of Britain tells of Kings and Castles but the armies came direct from the pub.
Naturally when the Collapse comes, the British will be found in the pub, and it is from these hosteleries of the Realm these small social groups, will emerge to work the fields again.
