Pub Odyssey 39

Thursday 6 October:  THE WELLINGTON, WELWYN VILLAGE (Chris Haden, Mike Horsman, Elvis Pile, David Room, Andrew Swift)

COMMENT:  "The Wellington is not a pub" said Elvis, and as usual the Sage of Tewin was quite right.  The food was fine, the beer was fine- though neither of them was cheap- so it met the requirement and obviously the Wellington's formula works; it was quite busy on a midweek lunchtime with a mixed clientele of all ages from pram-propelled to zimmer-propelled.  Anything that does the business and provides proper beer decently presented is fine by me, so I have no complaints, but the Wellington does seem to me to have a very bad case of split personality.

The Wellington is keen to emphasise its long pub history.  Outside, painted on the wall, is the following

                                                                   INN

                                                           WELLINGTON

                                                    VILLAGE  PUB  DINING

                                                               AD 1352

and there is also a plaque informing you that such famous English types as Samuel Peyps (1633-1703, diarist and omni-shagger), Dr Samuel Johnson (1709-1784, lexicographer and Tory) and David Garrick (1717-1779, actor) stayed there. The plaque also gives you the information that until 1816 it was called the White Swan; obviously the name was changed to celebrate the Duke of Wellington's defeat of the snail-chewing French rascal Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.

So far so English, but the split personality arises when you go inside.You might get the impression the snail-chewers had actually won at Waterloo because the place much more closely resembles a French wine bar than an English pub; hence Elvis's point. Well, the beer and food were OK.

However, the fact that the pub/wine bar is named after Wellington (and his boot hangs outside as well) gives me a chance to pay tribute to this very great man who not only put the frogs in their place but also played a big role in the promotion of English beer.  This happened as follows. Not everyone knows that the hero of Waterloo later served as a  generally unpopular Prime Minister (1828-30) but one whose administration nonetheless had important achievements including the creation of the Metropolitan Police, Catholic Emancipation, and the Beer Act.  The Beer Act was the product of the ruthless logic which had made the Iron Duke such a formidable opponent on the battlefield.  England was suffering from an epidemic of gin-drinking, very destructive of health prosperity and even life. ("Drunk for a penny, dead drunk for twopence").  The Iron Duke reasoned that banning gin wouldn't work; you had to provide people with a healthier alcoholic alternative. So the Beer Act allowed anybody  to brew and sell beer on their premises if they got a licence which only cost £2. Ten years after the act had passed, 50,000 new beer houses had opened!  And it did do something to reduce the gin problem.  So raise your next pint to that unusual phenomenon, a politician who made drinking easier and cheaper.  Messrs Cameron and Osborne are, of course, quite the reverse.