This month Barry Cuff takes us inside four Dorset pubs in the 1960s – an era of patterned carpets, themed bars and increasingly comfortable lounges, when the traditional public house was beginning to change
For much of the 20th century, a visit to the pub involved choosing the right door. The public bar was generally the cheapest and most basic, with wooden floors, simple furniture and somewhere to stand with a pint. The saloon or lounge bar offered upholstered seating, carpets and a little more comfort, usually at a slightly higher price.
By the 1960s, however, things were changing. Rising living standards, television and growing competition for people’s leisure time encouraged breweries and landlords to rethink what a pub should offer. Drinking was no longer necessarily the main attraction.
There is something rather wonderful about the effort involved. Each interior was designed to create an atmosphere, whether maritime, rural or reassuringly domestic. Some of the features were genuinely old: others were contemporary interpretations of what an old pub ought to look like.
Over the following decades, many pubs knocked through their separate bars, introduced larger dining areas and modernised their interiors. Much of the elaborate decoration disappeared along the way, although today’s enthusiasm for traditional pubs suggests that tastes have come full circle.
