what I have learned today.

[Paul]

We were paying 82p for a pint of Castlemaine XXXX in The Lazy Fox in Birmingham at the end of 1987.  If you were willing to go into one of the locals' pubs and drink bitter, 57p.  Mild was even cheaper, if you could actually stand the taste.  Birmingham was always a little cheaper than average for beer, probably because  most of the pubs sold M&B or Ansells swill.

Ooh - The Lazy Fox. I think I'd been drinking there the first time I cycled a bit tipsy (as recommended by Alexei Sayle to TdF watchers this year. The cycling tipsy, thing, not the Lazy Fox which, on-topically, I have learned today, no longer exists).

How does everyone remember, to the penny, how much a pint cost so long ago? I don't think I could tell you what I paid for a pint this year, let alone 30 or so years ago.

(But, speaking of mild beer, I had my first pint of that in The Brown Derby in 1979 or 1980)

[Jurek]

We were paying 27p for a pint of Youngs Special in a pub in West Norwood in 1974.
Imagine our collective delight when on a school field trip to Scarborough we discovered that bitter could be had for 22p a pint.

[ian]

I remember that when we went for a not very sneaky pint on Friday lunchtimes during sixth form, half the teachers would already be the pub doing the same. Oh for lunchtime drinking. Mind you, they never got a round in.

[eckagain]

I remember that when we went for a not very sneaky pint on Friday lunchtimes during sixth form, half the teachers would already be the pub doing the same. Oh for lunchtime drinking. Mind you, they never got a round in.

When I worked in Embra City Chambers in the mid 70s, it was a weekly custom that most of the "workforce" would decant to the many pubs in the Royal Mile of a Friday lunchtime. This was, when I joined the Cooncil, in the days when pubs would close for the afternoon at 2.30. giving everyone a wee hint that it was time return to our desks. Then, after a couple of years, the law changed and pubs could stay open all afternoon.
You'll never guess what the outcome was.
My boss, to our small friendly team: "Erm, guys, it's ten past four, maybe we should head back to the office."

[TheLurker]

Buggered if I can remember what beer cost when I started buying* it, but it has always seemed expensive to me.



*An entirely different thing from *drinking* it.

[ian]

I remember that when we went for a not very sneaky pint on Friday lunchtimes during sixth form, half the teachers would already be the pub doing the same. Oh for lunchtime drinking. Mind you, they never got a round in.

When I worked in Embra City Chambers in the mid 70s, it was a weekly custom that most of the "workforce" would decant to the many pubs in the Royal Mile of a Friday lunchtime. This was, when I joined the Cooncil, in the days when pubs would close for the afternoon at 2.30. giving everyone a wee hint that it was time return to our desks. Then, after a couple of years, the law changed and pubs could stay open all afternoon.
You'll never guess what the outcome was.
My boss, to our small friendly team: "Erm, guys, it's ten past four, maybe we should head back to the office."

My first proper boss in the non-academic world was a very old school publisher who believed sincerely in the value of lunchtime, to such extent that when I had the temerity to question 'should we get back to work?' in my early days (I wasn't sure if it wasn't some devious kind of test) she looked at me and said 'but ian, this is work' and ordered a third bottle of wine.

[geraldc]

The price that's set in my mind is the cost of cigarettes in vending machines in college. It was £2.30, and it could be achieved by 4 or 5 people just getting their loose change out of their pockets.  Now it's £12 quid a pack, and you have to be 18 to buy them, and they have to be hidden behind a grey curtain by the newsagent, so you can only ask for brands that you know of. I'm actually amazed by the youngsters who smoke, as I think its now cheaper to be a regular weekend user of cocaine, than it is to have a 20 a day habit.

I remember after my GCSE English mocks, going to the news agents and everyone buying a hamlet for 16p to celebrate.

[T42]

Buggered if I can remember what beer cost when I started buying* it, but it has always seemed expensive to me.



*An entirely different thing from *drinking* it.

I can remember my then BiL saying in 1990 that pubs in Eire had re-introduced an old measure called an imperial or some such, which was slightly smaller than a pint, so that they could keep the price under £1.

When I started drinking it a pint of McEwan's Export was 2/4d and decimalization was still 5 years away.

[Guy]

The European Stone Stacking Championships is actually a thing

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-57791811

[Regulator]

We were paying 82p for a pint of Castlemaine XXXX in The Lazy Fox in Birmingham at the end of 1987.  If you were willing to go into one of the locals' pubs and drink bitter, 57p.  Mild was even cheaper, if you could actually stand the taste.  Birmingham was always a little cheaper than average for beer, probably because  most of the pubs sold M&B or Ansells swill.

We were regularly paying £1 pint in the Student Union bar at UEA (1993-96).  The SU kept Adnams going as a business during a very tough period for the company.

I drank for free in the Grad Bar (one of the perks at the time of being a member of the volunteer bar staff).

Yeah but it was 50p a pint in Ritzy's or was that Peppermint Park ?

I never actually made it to Peppermint Park in three years at UEA.  I don't know whether to be embarrassed or proud...

[Ham]

Beer token was certainly in parlance before the £2 coin, and even the £1 coin, and was a fluid expression for money, both in coin but especially note, in the sense of a promissory note that could be exchanged for something useful.

(and, my own early drinking in the west end, early seventies, was  at the rate of 4 drinks for £1)

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

Buggered if I can remember what beer cost when I started buying* it, but it has always seemed expensive to me.



*An entirely different thing from *drinking* it.

Can still remember buying my first beer in a pub one hot summers day.  We were all well underage and I felt very daring when I paid 9d for a half.  Later on I started the school speakeasy stocked with cider. 

[nicknack]

My first beer in a pub was in '68. A bottle of brown ale. I've no idea what it cost.

A few years later - working in a college bar - bitter (some fizzy shit) was 13p and Guinnnnesss was 15p.

[felstedrider]

We were paying 82p for a pint of Castlemaine XXXX in The Lazy Fox in Birmingham at the end of 1987.  If you were willing to go into one of the locals' pubs and drink bitter, 57p.  Mild was even cheaper, if you could actually stand the taste.  Birmingham was always a little cheaper than average for beer, probably because  most of the pubs sold M&B or Ansells swill.

We were regularly paying £1 pint in the Student Union bar at UEA (1993-96).  The SU kept Adnams going as a business during a very tough period for the company.

I drank for free in the Grad Bar (one of the perks at the time of being a member of the volunteer bar staff).

Yeah but it was 50p a pint in Ritzy's or was that Peppermint Park ?

I never actually made it to Peppermint Park in three years at UEA.  I don't know whether to be embarrassed or proud...

There was a time when Wednesday at PP was a better night out than the Thursday at the LCR, but I lived that side of town and could walk there (and stagger back).   The building was boarded up last time I went through.

[T42]

The hottest place in Ireland this week was Ballywatticock.

[Canardly]

I found out what a Fellmonger and Woolstapler is.

[jsabine]

Would I be right in thinking that a fellmonger is a particularly specialised (and localised) estate agent?

(click to show/hide)

No. No, I would not.

But google tells me that the two professions go quite well together.

[rogerzilla]

A fellmonger sounds like someone who dispenses GBH and other forms of bodily harm.

[Kim]

Fellmonger pulls the wool off the fleece and a woolstapler puts it back on again, obviously.

[T42]

Can guess these from German.

[Canardly]

The building dates from the 1740s and backs onto the river Great Ouse which was used to transport merchandise. The business carried on until the 1930s. The sign in the photo is a copy, the original being kept in the museum adjacent.

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

The origin of the phrase ‘Hobson’s choice’.

[Mr Larrington]

That Tina Turner renounced her USAnian citizenship in 2013 after becoming Swiss.

[Kim]

That Mr Tesco's Emporium of Toothy Comestibles train their staff in, amongst other things, the importance of not offering cigarettes to people with open fractures and calling 999 if someone suffers a dog bite to the genitals.

(Or that's what they'd be training them in if they had the right email address.)

[Canardly]

A dog bite in the genitals eh? Is that where F and F comes from?