Robin Turner: The Search For the Perfect British Pub

The pub, as a cornerstone of British life, has never been more under threat. With smoking bans and the cost of a round being roughly equivalent to the price of a multipack from a supermarket, there are something like 57 pubs closing every week.

Robin Turner and Paul Moody headed off in pursuit of pubs that fizz with independence and a true frontier spirit, travelling from Edinburgh to the Pembury Estate in Hackney, from the Isle of Lundy to the House of Commons.

Robin Turner talks to Peter Moore about how the journey evolved into an elegy for the local pub, and for the bookshop and the greengrocers, all of which have faced detriment through the rise of the supermarkets and pubcos (pub companies).

What set you off on this quest to find the perfect pub?

Paul and I wrote a book a few years ago called the Rough Pub Guide. The idea was to write about unreconstructed pubs. Pubs that weren’t in chains. Pubs that were a little rough around the edges as opposed to rough, you’ll get beaten up. As we were researching pubs for that book we found ourselves wondering more about the philosophy of pubs. What actually constitutes a brilliant pub?

How did George Orwell come to be your muse?

George Orwell wrote a piece for the Evening Standard in 1946 about the perfect pub. It struck us that much of what he wrote was applicable now and set us off on a bit of a quest really. With Orwell as a guiding spirit, we would explore the length of the land to find pubs that matched his criteria.

According to that article, Orwell’s idea of the perfect pub was, “no rowdies, no music and a motherly barmaid who calls you ‘dearie’.” What’s your idea of a perfect pub?

Pretty much exactly the same! (Laughs)

Orwell’s ideas were obviously in tune with the scene in 1946, but I think a lot of his basic premises still apply. The perfect pub is a place that feels homely, that feels inviting, that isn’t in your face the whole time. A place where you don’t have shout to be heard, where the bar staff don’t treat you as if you are transient. If you can feel like a regular or a local, that’s almost the perfect pub experience really.