The Look
The exterior of English pubs was very simple as portrayed in this photograph by Vera Collingwood of a pub near Windsor. In fact for a long time the alehouses and inns looked just like every other house on the street. Actually the alehouses may not just look like a normal abode but they might actually be one, it was common for private houses to sell drinks right out of their kitchens. This homey atmosphere was even popular in the larger inns. They copied the décor of the homes of rich merchants, and gentlemen of the time, and some of the alehouses actually became private homes after business was over. The guests would decipher the pub from the private houses by looking for the intricate signs that distinguished one pub from another by the name and symbol (25).
All of the more exclusive pubs of the time had a special, private dwelling place for the proprietor. This room could also serve as a private room for guests who did not want to mix socially with the other lower orders of people who worked in the kitchen. This room would contain the proprietor's best furniture and examples of his most prized personal belongings, reflecting his personal interests, and family connections (26).
In the very early eighteenth century the bar-counter began to take form and start its popularity. It functioned as a means of maintaining control over the customers and also prevented them from helping themselves. This London Coffee house picture by an unknown artist shows the beginnings of a bar counter taking place. The bar-maid was known as "la belle Limonadiere" and would dispense liquor, pipes and tobacco. She would also look after the money (27).
As for the interior of the pubs it was also very popular to model private homes. Of course the design would most likely be more intricate and some inns would include ballrooms and assembly rooms, but on the whole most of the rooms in a traditional inn were very close to what would be seen in a regular home (28).
The "Home from Home" style of pub, being the most popular of the eighteenth century had a very simple interior. As mentioned before the kitchen was the main room of the house. It had a rough interior that would almost always have a large fireplace decorated with the cooking paraphernalia hanging overhead. There was little to no furniture in the pubs, besides a few tables and chairs. The floors consisted of stone flags and bricks while the walls were plain or whitewashed plaster as seen in "The Alehouse Kitchen" by George Morland (29).
