By James Davies, Divisional Director at Fleurets
There has been much change in the dynamic of the traditional public house in the last 15 years. One of the biggest innovations of that time was the original gastro pub.
The Eagle in Clerkenwell which was the brainchild of Michael Belben drew a huge amount of
publicity when it first opened as it pioneered the idea of good quality food being served in the less than de riguer surroundings of a public house. Today a ‘gastro pub’ can be found in most towns and villages around the country and they are one of the main reasons we all expect a much higher quality of product when we eat in a public house.
Public houses are core to the lives of most Brits so always attract good coverage and interest from the media, but there haven’t been many new openings that have captured the imagination more than the recent opening of the Hope & Champion by JD Wetherspoons at Junction 2 of the M40 motorway.
In fact, such was the interest that even the acclaimed ‘Times’ food critic, Giles Coren felt compelled to pay the Hope & Champion (see note below) a visit a few weeks ago. Mr Coren wrote a thoroughly interesting and amusing article in his column. He set off expecting to dislike Britain’s first motorway pub, but found the whole experience thoroughly positive! He also recounted a driving holiday in France from his youth when at every motorway bar, there would be groups of men drinking shots of Cognac with beer chasers, so the concept isn’t that new!
A public house opening on a motorway has the serial complainers out of their shell who were outraged by the offer of alcohol on a motorway, and I can only assume these people have
forgotten that there are not many public houses in the country which you can access not via a road!
It is however rather misleading to suggest that this is an innovation as it is more accurate to say it is reinventing the wheel. The combination of travel and alcohol is clearly not a new concept with the original coaching houses dating back to mid 1700’s. The original coaching inn had stables for teams of horses, stagecoaches and mail coaches and were traditionally in the region of seven miles apart.
Fast forward to the 20th century and on the busy ‘A’ roads and motorways the coaching inns were replaced by the familiar site of ‘Happy Eaters’ and ‘Little Chefs’ and eventually today by the Hope & Champion which revives the original concept of the coaching inn but without the stables!
Whilst I certainly do not condone drink driving, I do believe we should applaud Wetherspoons for providing the weary motorway passenger with the opportunity for a welcome break in a pub environment and proving that the original values of the coaching inn are going from strength to strength in the 21st century.
H&C News note: Wetherspoon’s advise that total drink sales in the Hope & Champion account for no more than 30% of revenues, of which alcohol sales are only 50%: total alcohol sales are therefore only 15% of total revenues, with food above two thirds – a similar revenue split to airport outlets.