The Kings Head and its clientele are enjoying a new lease of life as a community hub. It just shows what can happen when people get a taste of smoke free-dom, says Gerard Hastings
It’s nearly two years since the smoke left the King’s Head, but Charlie is still on cloud nine. He’d had to stop going for his customary pint when his chest tightened with late onset asthma, but now he is back in there with the best – joking, arguing, slagging off the pies and loving the beer – and breathing. Romance has even reared its beguiling head; Alice, his next door neighbour but one, has started accompanying him to the King’s. She enjoys a snowball or two and they share a delight in reminiscing.
Mike behind the bar is also doing well in the world of lurv. He is in his final year now – almost a nurse – and pulling pints has kept the financial wolf from the door. No more unwanted airborne toxins, no more concerns about his chest. His footy hasn’t improved though: the disappearing tobacco smoke has uncovered his real sporting problem – he just can’t kick a ball straight. But who cares – his goal famine on the pitch is more than compensated for by his scoring with Trudy. The relationship has blossomed and she pops in most nights he is working just so they can be close.
Breath of fresh air
Come the weekend they are often to be found walking the local moor, along with half a dozen other regulars. They got together to form a rambling club – they were all enjoying the fresh air in the pub so much it seem like a natural progression. The driving force is Fred who gave up the fags when the pub went smoke free. Never thought he could do it, and succeeding has given him a real boost. He is now planning a King’s Head charity walk in aid of the local hospice: from cynical bar fly to optimistic do-gooder in one fell, smoke-free swoop.
Things are changing behind the bar as well. An espresso machine has been installed and daytime trade has trebled as folk have realised there is an alternative to the clichéd corporate coffee shop. The landlady, Helen, spotted the opportunity and has begun to encourage community groups to hold their meetings at the King’s. There is good money to made out of being a caring community hub.
Power to the people
Meanwhile, Charlie and Alice are doing their own caring. And their reminiscing is telling them that the King’s has rediscovered an old truth: life gets better when ordinary people have the power to make it so. The bigwigs might have cleared out the smoke, but it’s the little folk who are making the real difference – it’s just a matter of letting them see the ball.
Gerard Hastings is Director of the Institute for Social Marketing at Stirling University, Professor of Social Marketing at Stirling and The Open University, and Director of the Cancer Research UK Centre for Tobacco Control Research.
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Comments
I live in Oxford and you can see the effect of people not drinking in bars...they are all closing down! The danger here is not that people arent drinking but we are loosing another pillar of our community.
As a reformed smoker of some yaers' standing, my pub-going has certainly increased since the smoking ban. But I tend to go for lunch rather than beer, and my drinking tends to revolve around coffee and sparkling water rather than anything stronger as I'm usually car-borne on such visits -- and of course there's the afternoon to cope with! I imagine that alcohol sales are accounting for less and less profit for pubs. I wonder what the long term effect of this is likely to be on the Great British Boozer?
It's also interesting how attitudes have generally changed towards smoking in other environments. Many people I know who routinely smoked in their homes, now take their cigarettes outside into the garden.
It's amazing how much social behaviours can be assumed to have become an unalienable part of everyday culture - when in reality they are not. At the time of the ban, it was argued that having a cigarette and a drink was a mix that just could not be separated. Clearly they could be.