Darts. Shove ha’penny. Skittles. Bar billiards. Cribbage. For centuries, British pubs and bars have been centres of activity, with customers playing these traditional games, forming leagues and honing their skills.
In many of the country’s more traditional pubs, these games are still popular, and have been joined in more recent times by activities such as the pub quiz and the karaoke night. Customers enjoy them because they bring entertainment and a competitive edge to a night out, and landlords love them because they bring in the customers - and, more importantly, they keep the customers coming back.
Gaming in UK pubs
Gaming was not always encouraged in pubs. In the Middle Ages, the authorities - which, mainly, meant the church - didn’t like the idea of people enjoying themselves too much (if at all). So gaming was banned, with landlords threatened with losing their licence if they allowed games in their pubs. Even as recently as the 1930s, games were banned in many pubs because it was thought that they encouraged drunkenness and bad behaviour.
For centuries, games of “chance” were banned in pubs on the grounds that they constituted gambling, which was heavily regulated. But in 1908, it has been reported (though possibly apocryphally) that a court case in Leeds proved that darts was a game of skill, not chance, and was therefore allowable: a dartboard was set up in the court and a highly ranked darts player was able to show the magistrate that he could hit the target. Darts became legal there.
Game for growth
So at a time when the British pub is under threat and people are drinking less, these and other activities could be a way to increase revenue and customer loyalty. The rise over the past few decades of the pub quiz has shown the value of these events, and the same goes for other games such as card games and board games.
Packs of cards, chessboards and draughts or dominoes could be kept behind the bar for loan to customers or simply left out for use, while a spare corner could be occupied by a dartboard. Large solid pub tables, such as Trent Furniture’s Rectangular Scroll Table or its Rectangular Farmhouse Table are ideal for playing cards and other games. Poker nights have become popular in recent years, after it was legalised in pubs around a decade ago for games with limited stakes of £5 a head. (The Gambling Commission sets out here what is permitted.)
The pub quiz has become an enduringly popular event in British pubs. A good host can make all the difference, and the use of video and audio clips can make the questions more entertaining. You may need to re-arrange your pub tables and chairs to accommodate a quiz, and to ensure that there is sufficient space between tables to prevent cheating or inadvertent overhearing.
Rhubarb and knitting
Bar billiards, meanwhile, is making a comeback in some parts of the country. The game was introduced to Britain in the 1930s, based on the Belgian game “billiard russes ” (which, as its name suggests, is of Russian origin), and became widely played across the country.
After suffering a slump with the arrival of electronic games and fruit machines in the 1960s and ’70s, a few years ago it was revived in York, where a new league was set up. It is also popular in Sussex and Norwich. Unlike its full-table equivalent, bar billiards can be played in a relatively confined space. Board game evenings, too, can pull in the customers. A regular board game evening could help with customer loyalty. It gives purpose to a night out and helps people to socialise. Storytelling nights and crafting evenings based around crafts such as knitting could help broaden the range of your clientele and bring in more female customers.
A more esoteric game is “rhubarb thrashing”, once popular in Yorkshire, in which two blindfolded contestants stand in dustbins and try to thrash each other with rhubarb.
Themes and variations
In recent years, some pubs and bars have gone one step further and have become themed around a specific game or activity. Pubs, bars and cafés themed around board games are popular, with shelves of games available for use and chairs and tables set out with board games in mind.
The board game café Draughts, in Hackney, east London, led the way when it opened in 2014. It charges £5 for admission, offering around 500 board games and a selection of craft beers, ciders and non-alcoholic drinks. The Crown in Hastings, East Sussex, is a popular pub where the boards for games such as Scrabble and chess have been cleverly stencilled into the pub tables.
Other game-themed pubs and bars include Bar Kick in Shoreditch, east London, where table football is the theme. Table football tables are arranged in between the bar’s regular tables and chairs.
Groups of people can reserve an area with one or two football tables for a celebration - an excellent way to spend a birthday. The bar also holds table football leagues - a good way to encourage customers to return. There are also non-footballing areas of the bar furnished with regular tables, chairs and sofas.
Also in trendy Shoreditch, Bounce is a bar that has an impressive 17 table tennis tables. Around them are long high narrow bar tables with high poseur chairs alongside. Of course, limitations on space would make such a set-up impossible for most pubs, but ping-pong is an increasingly popular activity so an area set aside for a table could bring in customers. It’s also a game that can be played outside in a garden area in the warmer months. Likewise skittles, in all its variations, boules, and quoits.
Darts, another popular pub game, has moved into the 21st century with Flight Club, a chain of bars across London and Manchester that offers darts as an “experience” in specially created booths with electronic scoreboards. These bars are popular for celebrations and team-building.
The concept is similar to ten-pin bowling, where food and drinks can be delivered to your booth. Other “themed” bars include indoor crazy golf (Swingers) and arcade and video games (The Four Quarters), each with two branches in London.
To cap it all off…
And then there are the “themed” pubs and bars, where customers might dress up for a night out. An example of this is Peaky Blinder’s bar in Liverpool, where the decor and furniture are themed around the popular TV series and images are projected on to the walls. Customers are encouraged to dress up in 1920s garb, which means lots of flat caps for the chaps and “flapper”-style dresses for the ladies.
The picture that seems to be emerging is that younger people want more from a night in a pub or bar than just sitting around a table. They want fun. Bear in mind that they drink less alcohol than previous generations - and that they are discerning drinkers: craft beers and ciders, non-alcoholic cocktails, tea and coffee are all popular. And, let’s face it, what’s especially appealing about these activities in the current climate is that they offer an alternative to talking about Brexit.