Licensed to Sell

Posted on 21. Aug, 2011 by Robert Gale in Books

Licensed to Sell is a revised edition of English Heritage’s study of British public houses. This second edition features corrections and a new chapter covering new developments in the industry such as the smoking ban and 24 hour licensing.

The book’s three authors are Geoff Brandwood, an architectural historian, Andrew Davison, an Inspector of Ancient Monuments, and Michael Slaughter, a photographer specialising in pub interiors.

The large book (almost A4 in size) features 200 pages crammed full of black and white and colour photographs, pub plans, old advertisements and drawings.

Split into 8 sections, the book starts by tracing the history of the public house to pre-Conquest ale houses and features 14th century illustrations of ale being sold. Subsequent chapters then discuss how the pub developed, how they were designed and how they were decorated.

An interesting chapter cover the many pub myths in particular the many pubs that claim to be the oldest in the UK. Despite citing the Guinness Book of Records many of the pubs are far from as old as they claim to be.

Priced at £17.99, Licensed to Sell is probably the most in-depth book on the history of pubs currently available. The book is available from Amazon, The Book Depository or directly from CAMRA.

Robert Gale (Twitter: @awv)

Beer Taster, Pub Attendee, Photo Taker

Robert Gale likes beer, pubs and beer festivals. He also likes to take photos of beer, pubs and beer festivals. Most weekends of the year you can find him travelling around the UK (and sometimes beyond) photographing and reviewing good quality pubs and beer festivals. He also has a day job in the form of a web developer for Ozum.