The pubs that unplugged from the modern world
Samuel Smith’s rules are not to all tastes, but the brewery could be on to something, reckons Adrian Tierney-Jones
any in the beer world eagerly court publicity and are keen to appear at the forefront of innovation, from slapping graffitistyle labels on cans and bottles to app-enabled drinks ordering in pubs.
Not so, the Yorkshire brewery of Samuel Smith, which is silent when it comes to marketing and promotion – yet still can’t help but hit the headlines.
You might have read reports this week of a series of tweets by Sally Lait, a customer who was disgusted with the attitude of one unnamed Sam Smith’s pub’s staff towards her and friends when they were told they were not allowed to use their phones on the premises. Lait’s posts received thousands of likes and were picked up in the press. She wrote: “Several times the staff came over to tell us to stop using our devices, which we did, until I asked for more information on the policy. The policy, at least in this pub, is black and white. If you want to use devices, don’t come in. The staff member then started to talk about the evils of digital addiction…”
It’s not the first time Samuel Smith’s digital-free policy has made the news. Last summer, the brewery closed its Cheshire Midland pub in Hale, Greater Manchester after a company inspection revealed its mobile phone ban had been breached by customers.
This goes to show that Samuel Smith pubs are quite different to most drinking establishments: mobile phones, laptops, tablets, even Kindles are banned; payment in many pubs is by cash only; and the look and feel of the establishments is, in the words of its own website, “uncompromisingly Victorian”. And all this is down to their owner, Humphrey Smith.
In 2012, it was reported that the licensees of one of the brewery’s Manchester pubs were suspended and the premises closed in the middle of New Year’s Eve, when Smith turned up and declared that the beers being served didn’t have enough froth on them – and, as a result, too much valuable beer was being given away.
In 2017, Smith banned swearing in his pubs. Last October he was said to have closed another establishment, The Fox and Goose in Worcestershire, after overhearing a customer swearing while carrying out one of his many unannounced visits.
Then last March managers of the company’s 200 or so pubs were told that their customers’ use of mobile phones was banned so as to encourage “social conversation”. If drinkers wanted to use their devices, they would have to join the smokers outside. Debit and credit cards have been given the elbow, though this seems to be more common in pubs in the North than in London.
And yet, are these strict policies bad for business? It seems not. Whatever the publicity that follows Samuel Smith and its boss, there is no denying that this is a successful company, with a range of traditional beers (you won’t find a mango milkshake IPA at the bar, for instance). There are over 20 pubs in London, many of which are architectural gems, such as The Cheshire Cheese and the Princess Louise.
Samuel Smith Old Brewery was founded in Tadcaster, Yorkshire, in 1758 and has been in the same family since the 19th century. Many of its pubs are in northern England, with others in the East Midlands, London and Bristol and Gloucester. They are noted for their old-fashioned decor, with snob screens, booths and ornate wooden bar backs, retained and preserved wherever possible.
“They are pubs as they used to be,” says Peter Edwardson of pubcurmudgeon.blogspot.com, “though I do think the mobile phone ban is bonkers and represents eccentricity taken a bit too far.” The pubs also only serve beers and other products brewed and owned by Samuel Smith. The menus of those that sell food include the company’s beers in their dishes. Even though it is virtually impossible to discover any figures on the pubs’ successes online – and whether, when or where the brewery plans to open more pubs – anecdotal evidence suggests they are thriving while some other chains are struggling.
For Peter Alexander, a Rochdalebased beer writer (tandlemanbeerblog.blogspot.com) and Camra activist, the pubs’ popularity is due to the fact that visiting them is “like stepping back into the late Seventies and early Eighties. They are clean and bright, not hugely overdecorated and well run. There is no music. The beer is cheap, with a pint of keg mild being £1.29 and Old Brewery Bitter below £2, so they attract people who don’t have much to spend. The bottled beer and spirits prices are higher though – £6 for Imperial Stout for instance.
“The thing about Smith,” he adds, “is he has a demographic of customers who find the pubs comfortable, and they are mainly in their 50s, 60s and 70s. He also doesn’t stint on heating, with the pubs always having coal fires in the winter.”
Smith doesn’t talk to the press; the only beer writer I know who has been allowed inside is former Good Beer Guide editor Roger Protz – in 1991. However, for someone deemed “reclusive”, Smith is active in visiting his own pubs across the country, and Peter Alexander was there when he was at one.
“It was about four years ago during a Camra committee meeting,” he recalls, “at the Yew Tree in Rochdale. We walked in and there was a guy at the bar in a nice suit. When we guessed who he was we confronted him about the lack of caskconditioned Old Brewery Bitter on offer, and he replied that the absence was all down to the head brewer who stipulated that if any pub doesn’t sell an 18-gallon cask in three days, then it would be delivered in keg.”
A former licensee I spoke with (on condition of anonymity) said that the pubs’ success was due to the fact that they have got their business model so right. “They trade off their heritage, which is real and authentic, and are streets ahead of other places that try to trade as traditional pubs. The authenticity is why I bought into it. They were also the first brewery to be vegan. The beer is crucial to their reputation, as it is so natural.”
However, this person no longer works for the company, having resigned in part over the mobile phone ban. “The final straw for me was when Smith said that if people in the pub had phones in front of them they should be told to put them away. It was a case of telling people how to live their lives, and on what grounds can that be reasonable?”
Bill Simmons, a commentator on the brewing industry who worked for the company for eight years and spent time on the board, also agrees about the pubs’ quality – though with a caveat.
“The success of the pubs, especially in London, has been their location and history,” he says. “Smith bought iconic pubs such as the Chandos, the Swiss Cottage and the Cheshire Cheese. The fact that they are iconic pubs is the reason for their success. To me, though, their failing is that even though they are among the best pubs in London, why aren’t they run as the best?
“I understand the phone ban, but it is not living in the real world. We don’t live in Humphrey Smith’s world and he doesn’t live in ours; there has to be some form of compromise.”
Samuel Smith and its 70-something owner will continue to make headlines and thrive. This survival, I suspect, will be due to the pubs’ individuality as well as the beers and eccentric management.
Speaking of beer, I had a delicious glass of the 8% oak-aged Yorkshire Stingo at the Chandos near Trafalgar Square recently. Now that is a beer worth going to the cashpoint and putting the phone away for.
In October, owner Humphrey Smith was said to have closed a pub after hearing a customer swearing
‘They trade off heritage. They are streets ahead of other pubs that also trade as traditional’