A Pub is Not a Bar: It's a Place for Friends, Romance, and Community

Our recent cineTREK out to the Holly Bush in Hampstead resulted in a storm of revelations, including the friendly, romantic, and communal aspects that embody a pub. As I do not have the time or space to focus on all three, I will turn my critical attention to the communal aspects. 

As our group of several foreigners approached the doors to enter the Holly Bush pub the locals, gathering for their normal Saturday afternoon glasses of wine or beer, stopped their conversations and turned their heads with expressions of awe as to how we were able to find and infiltrate their exclusive community. There was a wide variety of customers such as some middle aged business men, a few younger couples, and some older men inside. The amount of diversity in customers that was present was a good indicator that the pub is more of a community than a bar where people from different backgrounds can come to enjoy more than the alcohol. Surprisingly there was also a younger woman who entered the pub in full work out attire, and proceeded to order a drink. Assuming she just finished her work out and went to the pub straight after depicts how important the pub is to the locals community. The pub is not a place that the locals go to to get absurdly drunk, but a place they go to relax and unwind with the their family and friends. The atmosphere was calm with most guests talking in hush voices, and the staff was rather bubbly.

Given the time of our afternoon arrival the pub was quite lively, but it had a different energy from anything that I have ever seen before in an American bar. There was an intimate vibe that I had never felt before in a scene like that, partly because of the small size of the pub, but also because the lighting, aromas, and classical theme that just isn't replicable. There were also specific areas in the pub that were off to the sides that offered an even more intimate experience for those seeking romance. Although all of these aspects might seem to separate the pub's community, they all play a vital role in bringing the customers closer without actually forcing them on each other. This allows for them to converse separately without being interrupted by others, and still contribute to the vibe of the pub. 

The major differences between this casual society and the average American bar, which usually has screens, huge open spaces filled with people drowning each others voices out, and customers drinking heedlessly, accentuate the major differences that are present in these two societies. American tend to need to be entertained at the highest of all levels, and aren't as interested in talking amongst themselves until they have more than a few drinks. This is much different from the subtle community in which the pub creates through its casual aspects. In all the massive cultural differences allow for these drastic differences between the American bar and Holly Bush pub.