"Before the sports pub, before the theme pub, before the gastro pub, there was, well, just the pub.

It was a place one went for a quiet pint, with friends or strangers, richor poor. It was a place of drink, certainly, but also one of discussion and discourse, sometimes dispute. Today such places have mostlydisappeared."

More:

"Licensing hours in those days (pubs opened late morning, shut duringthe afternoon and opened again in the evening until 11 p.m.) meant youmight pop in midday for a glass of lunch, but the serious business wasan evening affair. That said, when I was at school I learned as muchfrom my political history teacher when he held court over lunch at thelocal as I did in his classroom. It was a different time."

Read the rest of "A Eulogy For The Pub" at Forbes.