PRESS RELEASE: Open City publishes new book celebrating the social, and cultural history of London’s pubs

Aug 16

Published to coincide with London’s 30th Open House Festival, this new book champions London’s public houses following challenges of the pandemic.
The book features a wide range of contributors including comedian Isy Suttie, musician Bob Stanley, brewer Jaega Wise and politician Rupa Huq with a Foreword by Mayor of London Sadiq Khan.
The book includes over 120 pubs across all 33 boroughs.

Open City, the charity best known for staging the annual Open House London Festival, has announced the forthcoming publication of a new book celebrating the capital’s pubs.

The book, which is edited by the architect Cristina Moneiro and designer David Knight and features a wide range of contributing writers, tells the cultural and social history of London through over 120 pubs across all 33 boroughs of the city.

Titled, Public House: A Cultural and Social History of the London Pub, and featuring a foreword by Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, the book sets out to celebrate the diversity, design and culture of London’s public houses from opulent Victorian Gin Palaces and homely medieval Taverns to contemporary Micropubs and community-owned breweries.

Editors Cristina Moneiro and David Knight said: “Pubs have had an extremely hard time during the pandemic, we hope this book will help champion London’s pubs and their important contribution to the civic and cultural life of our city.”

Public House traces tales of craft, architecture, music, queer activism, black history, comedy, migration, sport and heritage featuring a wide range of contributors including comedian Isy Suttie, musician Bob Stanley, brewer Jaega Wise and politician Rupa Huq.

Public House is being published to coincide with the 2021 Open House Festival which will open the doors of hundreds of buildings and landscapes of special buildings across London for the first public visits since the pandemic began. Pubs are a core theme of the 2021 Open House Festival which hopes to support the sector to received after a very difficult year.

The book builds on the success of The Alternative Guide to the London Boroughs edited by Owen Hatherley which Open City published in 2020 during the first national lockdown as a response to the pandemic. The alternative guide featured 33 writers each exploring the conditions of one one of London’s 33 boroughs.

Contributors

A full list of contributors is available at the Open City online shop listing of the book here.

Images

Press images can be downloaded from this link.

Press Copies

Complimentary press and digital review copies of Public House: A Cultural and Social History of the London Pub can be requested by emailing press@open-city.org.uk.

Events

Press Launch

– For the press launch of Public House the editors will lead a short walk between three pubs featured in the book in central London.

5pm, Tuesday 24 August, Ye Olde Mite, EC1N 6SJ

RSVP: press@open-city.org.uk

Launch Party

6pm, Thursday 9 September, The George Inn, SE1 1NH

RSVP: press@open-city.org.uk

Public Programme

A public programme exploring the themes of the book will take place throughout the autumn.

Quotes

Sadiq Khan, Mayor of London, who has written the foreword to Public House, said: ‘London’s pubs don’t just reflect our history, they’ve also shaped the lives of Londoners too. Pubs are places where we’ve met new friends and partners, where we’ve discovered new music and been entertained, and where we’ve come together around a common interest, whether that’s live performance, food, football, or a traditional pub quiz. London’s pubs have played a crucial role as meeting points for exiled members of the French Resistance during the first world war, the LGBTQ+ community battling for equal rights, and black community leaders fighting for racial justice. Pubs will continue to play a key role in our capital’s communities and social fabric. But we can’t take their future for granted – we must all play our part in ensuring their survival. As much as London’s fascinating and vivid history can be told through the life of our pubs, life in London will be all the richer if we can preserve our precious pubs for generations to come.’

Notes

The official publication date of Public House: A Cultural and Social History of the London Pub is 4 September, the first day of the 2021 Open House London Festival.
The 2021 Open House Festival will launch on Saturday 4 September and run for nine days until Sunday 12 September.
The book features over 120 pubs across all of London’s 33 boroughs.
The book was edited by Cristina Monteiro and David Knight designed by Studio Christopher Victor.