On the matter of pubs

[moonlite_tryst]

Specifically, ye olde tradional british pubs.

Over the last 4 years I have read many fics and most of them have adhered to canon details in some form or other. But time and time again I'm thrown out of a fic once the characters enter one of the pubs in the wizarding world; pubs which, by their very location in the wizarding world, I expect be traditional (unless refurbishment is mentioned) but find contain unfamiliar elements such as the booth, the counter and the barkeep. *warning, image heavy*



Ladies and gents, may I present the traditional bar:







That's bar people, not counter. To most Brits, a counter is something in a cafe, or even a shop.

Traditional british pubs have - and this is the important bit - open seating: chairs around tables, stools at the bar.








They do not have booths. You may find a booth or two in one of the reproduction pub interiors that now grace most Muggle city centres, such as the Eerie pub chain or Weatherspoons, but finding booths in an unrefurbished traditional pub would be highly unlikely. And if there's one thing you can rely on in the wizarding world, it's tradition.

Finally, for most of us Brits, it's usual to order beer from either a barman or a barmaid, although that doesn't mean that barkeep is incorrect. The term was unfamilair to me until I read fanfic, but I couldn't find any Google entry that defined barkeep as being of either english or american origin.

So please folks, if you intend any witch or wizard to enter ye olde Leakey Cauldron or other unmodernised establishment, leave the booths and counters out.

Comments

[moonlite-tryst.livejournal.com]

You can always mail me with any questions.

what is the common time for the evening meal at home

Anywhere between 5 and 7 pm depending on the household and whether your characters work. 5pm would be tea time and 7pm would be called dinner.

Re Starbucks, yes they are now common in major cities and tourist hot spots. I can think of 4 in Nottingham city centre along with numerous Costa Coffee's and Cafe Nero's. What you won't find easily any more is a proper tea shop.

[elsa12790.livejournal.com]

Just butting in with a further question about tea time: is it just a difference in nomenclature, then, based on the time it's eaten, or would dinner and tea time have different foods? I know tea time can be much more substantial than many Americans think (with our visions of little sugary cakes on fine china) but can it actually be the main evening meal? I think I sort of imagined that a late afternoon tea time, while not merely a snack, would be followed by a later (7:30-8:30) dinner.
Thank you, and thanks as well for the pub info.

[moonlite-tryst.livejournal.com]

is it just a difference in nomenclature

Answering from an english perspective: no, it's more than that. It also comes down to class and you know how we english are still hide bound by our class system. So, here goes:

Prior to the introduction of tea into Britain, the English had two main meals, breakfast and dinner. Breakfast was ale, bread, and beef. Ugh!

During the middle of the eighteenth century, dinner for the upper and middle classes had shifted from noontime to an evening meal that was served at a fashionable late hour. Dinner was a long, massive meal at the end of the day. Because of this gap from lunch time to the late evening meal, tea time became the fashionable way to fill the empty tummy. You then had a 4 meal day: breakfast, lunch, tea, dinner.

Now, to those of us of working class origins we have 3 meals a day: breakfast, dinner time (middle of the day) and tea time, which is usually after 4:30pm and will have a main course and some times a dessert. If I'm going out for a meal after 7 pm, I will call it dinner. Very late snacks are called supper by all. Does that help?