Cheri Randolph Art Collections

Pubs

Some speculate that traditional English Pubs are fast dwindling into nonexistence. Thousands fell after the smoking ban in 2006, and Britons themselves may be trending toward a more continental drinking choice of wine and trendy gourmet food renderings. The vanishing pub means, by common consent, the loss of the beating heart of a community, in town or countryside. A pub can become a sort of encapsulation of place, containing grainy photographs, dog-eared posters for last year’s fete, its snoozing cats, its prettiest girls behind the bar, and its strangest characters in front of it. No matter what the season, they are prized for a sense of history in the layers of paper, clutter and paint. What matters is the atmosphere, that indefinable thing that no one can put a finger on. Paraphrased from: “Time, Gentlemen” The Economist, December 16, 2010