So wrote Rogers and Hammerstein many years ago. And apparently the big breweries think that has to be the case even with their pubs. But does it?
(Copyright © 1998 T Bruce Tober)
It's bad enough when an old, traditional pub is gutted and "renovated" into a modern, version of itself. But when one of the area's very few remaining Victorian pubs, The City Tavern, is to be demolished in order to replace it with a car park, well, what can one say, other than that's criminal.
Someone once said "The History of its Taverns is the History of London. To know one is to know the other." While, that may not quite be true of Birmingham also, it's close as damned all.
But, pubs and taverns, like anything else, come and go.
When they go, either of two things happen, either they get refurbished, losing their grace, charm and whatever other elements kept them thriving for decades, if not centuries. Or they go totally, as in this case, only to be replaced by car parks or shops.
When they come, they come into being as modern-day, chrome and glass, glitz and glitter members
of one of the major brewery's groups of pubs with little individuality or personality.
And I suppose that's all okay. Unless you're an aficionado. Or a tourist.
Most USAmericans, for example, don't know much about pubs, other than the faux pubs that cater to ex-pat Brits living in the States or the "olde worlde" ones they see in the movies and read about in books. Imagine their disappointment when they come to visit Brum in a few month's time and find the truly antique pubs gone and only the vacuous, glitzy new ones still around. "Look Ethel, if I'd wanted to see bars like this we could have stayed in Osh Kosh," Joe Tourist will say, and he'll be right.
For a city, intent on building its tourist industry, this is insane. Tourists, especially USAmerican tourists come to England, the UK in general, to see the old, the traditional, the "quaint". They want to see castles, antiques, manor houses, suits of armour, thatched rooves and Black Country Living museums. They don't want more glass and chrome, glitz and glitter. They get plenty of that at home without spending $6,000+ on a two-week, once-in-a-lifetime holiday here.
I call on all readers here to join with CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale) and me this week in urging Birmingham City Council to save the city centre's last intact Victorian pub, The City Tavern.
CAMRA has put together it's own webpage for the campaign to save The City Tavern. Please visit it and follow the instructions on how to make your voice heard.