In 1970, I left school at 18 and went to work in the City. I was pleasantly surprised to find there was a subsidised bar at work which was open from 11:30 to 2:30. The 2:30 finish gave you just enough time to get back to your desk before it was 3:00 and time to go for a cup of tea and two poached eggs on toast before packing up to go home at 4:30. (Or earlier if it was a nice day and you could wangle a "sunny off".) Frankly, most of the City's decision-making was better back then too!
In 1970, I left school at 18 and went to work in the City. I was pleasantly surprised to find there was a subsidised bar at work which was open from 11:30 to 2:30. The 2:30 finish gave you just enough time to get back to your desk before it was 3:00 and time to go for a cup of tea and two poached eggs on toast before packing up to go home at 4:30. (Or earlier if it was a nice day and you could wangle a "sunny off".) Frankly, most of the City's decision-making was better back then too!
I work at a local authority. Alcohol is provided at lunchtime functions when they occur. We regularly go to the pub/restaurant at lunchtime. No-one abuses this and it is openly tollerated.
If a lunchtime pint is good enough for Farage then it isn't for me. He is a cock of the highest order . He was at a funeral I attended recently and was drinking orange juice afterwards. Man is a twat !!,
the good old days. Natwest had both a wine bar and a pub bar on Old Broad Street along from the Natwest tower.
Great days, £1.05 pints of Tenants extra or bottles of Lamot, becks etc. On birthday drink ups used to order a crate of beer to be brought over to your area and two bottles of wine for the ladies. Only problem was back in the day the pubs closed at 3pm so left hanging until 5.00pm
Tate& Lyle had a big bar inside the Factory but it was closed in the 90,s when a new regime took over and all drinking was moved over the road to the T&L institute which is now sadly closed.
Currently £2 a pint in the subsidised Senior Common Room bar at the University I work at, same as the two SU bars. Its also the staff dining area. Most academics are supping on pints every lunchtime. Noone ever questions it as a lot of scientific collaboration occurs over a pint (apparently!)
Just off for my Friday burger and a pint for a fiver. Cant beat that
if I'm paying this bloke to attend whatever parliament through my taxes, he should do so or forgo some of his income, I don't care what his manifesto was. Perhaps he'd like to forgo some of his salary and allowances also in protest?
Currently £2 a pint in the subsidised Senior Common Room bar at the University I work at, same as the two SU bars. Its also the staff dining area. Most academics are supping on pints every lunchtime. Noone ever questions it as a lot of scientific collaboration occurs over a pint (apparently!)
Just off for my Friday burger and a pint for a fiver. Cant beat that
Used to work for a Central London Council in the 1980's. Every lunchtime was spent in the pub. My bosses philosophy was that if you had more than 3 pints you weren't fit for work so we had to 'go home' and make the time up. Used to spend more time 'at home' than in the office. Thing is, it was never enforced. I now work for a Council in the burbs and when I first went there, the drinking culture was the same. These days not a single person goes to the pub as people are more worried about the performance management process and the threat of losing a job.
I used to work for Barclays processing payments about 10 years ago. On Fridays we used to get 30min lunch. In which time we used to walk to the pub (5mins) have 3 pints fosters (15mins) walk to Boots to pick up the £2.49 meal deal then head back to work! Not sure how we did it. Pisssing like a race horse all afternoon!
Interesting this, i have always had a drink @ lunchtime since i was 17, if i mention to my mum she will say its wrong. I dont drink everyday at lunch but usually fridays, not so much of late but dont see it as a big deal. I work on the phones in an office, only once/twice have i ever come back drunk from a bottle of wine etc but still other people couldn't tell and i was ablet o do my job effectively, i wouldnt make a habit of it but sometimes you are just in the mood.
Suppose the same arguement for those that have 3-4 pints and say they can drive? Although i would only have 1, but at lunch time i have had a bottle of wine as i have 3-4 hours for it to wear off.
Not drinking today though, where has that sun gone??
When i first started work for Royal Mail back in 1985 we had a bar in the canteen area,dirt cheap and many a pint drunk,it got closed down as all the bars did in large sorting offices around the mid 90's after an xmas party got out of hand.
I used to work for Barclays processing payments about 10 years ago. On Fridays we used to get 30min lunch. In which time we used to walk to the pub (5mins) have 3 pints fosters (15mins) walk to Boots to pick up the £2.49 meal deal then head back to work! Not sure how we did it. Pisssing like a race horse all afternoon!
I work at a local authority. Alcohol is provided at lunchtime functions when they occur. We regularly go to the pub/restaurant at lunchtime. No-one abuses this and it is openly tollerated.
Blimey I must get myself over to your LA then. I've worked for 5 different ones and have never, ever, had alcohol provided at any of (the few) functions that have been put on. In fact I know of more than one colleague who has lost their job due to excessive drinking.
Back in the day at a central london council Friday afternoons were pretty much a write off due to the lunchtime get togethers (on our own time I'd point out - the wonders of flexitime!). I don't know of any authority with that sort of culture now though.
It has hard to phathom how much things have changed. When i did my work experience as a 15yr old, i'd get taken to lunch most days by my supervisor for 2 pints of Kronie. The only change in routine i could work out there was, was that if he didn't have me to chaperone, it would have been a strip pub.
When i started work as a 16yr old 20 years ago, my work had two subsidised bars, one like a traditional pub, the other like a sit down wine bar. Both did a roaring trade.
20 years ago it was the norm to go and have a couple of pints at lunchtime, a bit of a session on a Friday. A tea break mid-morning and a coffee break mid-afternoon was also part of the routine in most offices.
10 years ago the bars had gone, as had the breaks, a Friday drink up was still pretty rife and possibly another during the week. All leaving drinks would have a lunchtime session.
Now, I would say on an average day, much less than 1% will be having a drink at lunchtime. Any drinking is probably restricted to a Friday, but it is certain not a routine any more. I'd probably have a drink at lunchtime 10 times over the course of a year, 3-4 of those will be the days around xmas, 2-3 others will be 'team lunch'.
You been on the sauce AFKA?
Back in the 80's worked in a dealing room for a major bank, where 2 and 3 hour lunches were the norm, normally funded by the brokers. Once the books were squared, then it was back down the pub until it was time to go home. Seemed to be the culture of the day. Mainly in the Jamaica Inn near Leadenhall Street, the' jam pot' as it was known before the white powder brigade started frequenting it.
Occasionally we would wander over London Bridge to the pubs in the market, one had a pool table right up the top, The Swan I think it was, or down to Brown's at Shoreditch for the lunchtime 'entertainment' and then a black cab back to Gracechurch Street.
Different culture nowadays. Don't drink anymore myself, but few people seem to go to the pub, and those that do get 'the look' when they get back. How times have changed.
Currently £2 a pint in the subsidised Senior Common Room bar at the University I work at, same as the two SU bars. Its also the staff dining area. Most academics are supping on pints every lunchtime. Noone ever questions it as a lot of scientific collaboration occurs over a pint (apparently!)
Just off for my Friday burger and a pint for a fiver. Cant beat that
Right, where do you work...?!
Actually, correction, burger and a pint for £4.40 lol. http://www.qmsu.org/griffinn/ - showed my work ID and got 20% off
Beat this one. Back in about 1976 I was a fireman and used to take part time work on days off. I spent a couple of weeks at the Watney ( I think) brewery in Brick Lane as a general dogs body in the bottling plant. When you got into work they gave you six raffle tickets which each could be exchanged for a half pint from a wooden barrel at a little bar right on the factory floor. This was supposed to stop workers stealing the beer from the abundance of bottles. It didn't. Blokes would walk past a crate, knock the top off a bottle drink it and put it back into the crate. This practice was rife. Blokes must have been drinking pints and pints a day plus the three freebies. I couldn't keep up. You young uns don't know you are born ;0)
It's funny this thread has come about as I was only speaking to a colleague who worked at the same company for 30 years. When they started, they were allowed to go to the pub at lunchtime and smoke a cigarette in the office.
Now, you are not allowed to even have 1 pint and you can't smoke inside the office. It's ridiculous their is these rules and regulations you have to apply now.
People can do what they like as long as it's not illegal or effecting anyone else. Lunch time is free time in my opinion. Obviously getting pissed/stoned/high when on your lunch break is one quick way of getting to the dole office
My first job was for The GLC at County Hall. The bar there was called "The Service Circular" had about three pints every day. Lots of people had a lot more. One quite senior manager used to be in there on every possible occasion. I was pals with one of his office juniors and very often this manager would say to my pal. When you get back to the office can you put FOH in my diary. Eventually I found out this meant "fucked off home" . Those were the days.
It was the late 1970s and I was in my early twenties, working in an administration job at London Transport head offices by day, and playing drums in a rock band at night. Wednesday lunchtime was always three full hours in the Westminster Arms in Marsham Street with my boss, admiring the "exotic dancers" and sinking numerous pints of Charrington's IPA. One lunchtime I recognised one of the strippers - she had danced on stage for my band a couple of years previously: a bit like Stacia with Hawkwind, but somewhat less well-developed. Without a murmur of objection, my boss allowed me the afternoon off to escort the young lady back to her flat in Earl's Court - while he himself decided he needed a haircut - and fell asleep in the barber's chair. For you youngsters among us: We did actually get the work done in those days. And for us oldsters: As the great American writer Charles Bukowski once wistfully said: "Youth, sonofabitch, where did you go?"
There is the conveniently named "Old Doctor Butler's Head" in the City. So, after a very lengthy lunch and the inevitable "where have you been?" from the boss, you could honestly say you'd been to the Doctor's.
I work for an American company and they are also amazed by the drinking culture that still exists to an extent in London on a regular working day. Probably confused them a bit when I go out there and all I want to do after work is go out!
The comedian Lucy Porter did a good observational take on that: In New York, you'd be asked if you'd like to go to a party after work and after one drink everyone left. Whereas in London you'd be asked if you fancied a drink and you'd still be there 10 pints later.
In 6th form we used to go to the pub at lunchtime at least 3 times per week. Teachers never knew or cared.
A few of us at work went to watch the 2nd half of the Lions game in the pub this week and came back to an e-mail telling us to never do it again.
Despite the social aspect of my job, going to the boozer over lunch has never been on the agenda. Now when I had my recent 6 months paid garden leave then it wasn't quite so regimental ;~)
Ah those really were the days. Shortly after starting in IT I had an assessment and my line manager wrote that I was having trouble adjusting to the work environment. What he meant was I was having trouble keeping up with him at lunchtime!
With the exception of those with jobs where sobriety is essential, there is nothing wrong with a beer at lunchtime in moderation. Especially on a Friday, the missus used to work for HSBC and the best team building was done on a Friday lunchtime in the pub ( and then often after work too ). That is no longer allowed by those invisible people in ivory towers and those that still work there say it is much the poorer for it.
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Frankly, most of the City's decision-making was better back then too!
Natwest had both a wine bar and a pub bar on Old Broad Street along from the Natwest tower.
Great days, £1.05 pints of Tenants extra or bottles of Lamot, becks etc.
On birthday drink ups used to order a crate of beer to be brought over to your area and two bottles of wine for the ladies. Only problem was back in the day the pubs closed at 3pm so left hanging until 5.00pm
Most academics are supping on pints every lunchtime. Noone ever questions it as a lot of scientific collaboration occurs over a pint (apparently!)
Just off for my Friday burger and a pint for a fiver. Cant beat that
Suppose the same arguement for those that have 3-4 pints and say they can drive? Although i would only have 1, but at lunch time i have had a bottle of wine as i have 3-4 hours for it to wear off.
Not drinking today though, where has that sun gone??
Back in the day at a central london council Friday afternoons were pretty much a write off due to the lunchtime get togethers (on our own time I'd point out - the wonders of flexitime!). I don't know of any authority with that sort of culture now though.
Back in the 80's worked in a dealing room for a major bank, where 2 and 3 hour lunches were the norm, normally funded by the brokers. Once the books were squared, then it was back down the pub until it was time to go home. Seemed to be the culture of the day.
Mainly in the Jamaica Inn near Leadenhall Street, the' jam pot' as it was known before the white powder brigade started frequenting it.
Occasionally we would wander over London Bridge to the pubs in the market, one had a pool table right up the top, The Swan I think it was, or down to Brown's at Shoreditch for the lunchtime 'entertainment' and then a black cab back to Gracechurch Street.
Different culture nowadays. Don't drink anymore myself, but few people seem to go to the pub, and those that do get 'the look' when they get back. How times have changed.
Now, you are not allowed to even have 1 pint and you can't smoke inside the office. It's ridiculous their is these rules and regulations you have to apply now.
P.S Nigel Farage is becoming a legend
The Crown & Anchor has a nice sunny but smallish garden.
The Abbaye, outside The Glades on The Queens Gardens sells Belgian beers & there are tables by the side of gardens.
The Swan & Mitre has a paved "garden", with sun on some of the benches.
http://www.beerintheevening.com/pubs/results.shtml?l=Bromley
A few of us at work went to watch the 2nd half of the Lions game in the pub this week and came back to an e-mail telling us to never do it again.
Despite the social aspect of my job, going to the boozer over lunch has never been on the agenda. Now when I had my recent 6 months paid garden leave then it wasn't quite so regimental ;~)