The Last of England
18th of February
“Change your hearts or you will lose your Inns and you will deserve to have lost them. But when you have lost your Inns drown your empty selves, for you will have lost the last of England.”
HILAIRE BELLOC, This and That
From Brewster Alewives to the pubco beer tie and beyond, Lewes licensee, Tony Leonard, traces the history of the British pub. Against a background of 31 pubs a week closing, many of them to become supermarkets and convenience stores, Tony asks what, if anything, can be done to save this once-loved institution, and why should we even try?
Tony Leonard, co-owner and licensee of the Snowdrop Inn, was born in a pub on a mountain in Wales and has worked in the licensed trade, with occasional forays into journalism, ever since. Along with his partner, Dominic McCartan, he’s been a champion of English brewing, local small-scale food production and a vociferous campaigner against the excesses and abuses of the tied pub system as practised by the large pubcos.
