Drinking Habits Change

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30783, 22 June 1965, Page 6

Drinking Habits Change

The swing to suburban drinking and the development of “super” hotels on the outskirts of the city have caused a major change in Christchurch drinking habits over the last five or six years.

It is common, on any Saturday between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m., to find more than 1000 people in six or seven of the suburban hotels —from onethird to a half of them women.

The biggest factor in the break with the tradition that a bar was for men only has been the introduction of the jug of beer and seated drinking. No estimate can be given by the trade as to what this has cost, but it would run into hundreds of thousands of pounds for lounge accommodation alone. “We feel we have done a lot to counter sniping at ‘the trade’ that it was interested merely in selling drinks, with little regard for the comfort or convenience of the drinkers,” said a leading figure in the industry. “Drinking conditions in Christchurch today are ahead of anywhere else in New Zealand. Auckland has bigger bars and lounges, but they are not as pleasant and comfortable as the selection in Christchurch.”

The trend began in Christchurch about six years ago, coincidental with decontrol of hotel tariffs, he said. This rave hotel owners a greater eeling of freedom in improvng accommodation, and was assisted by nudges by the .icensing Control Commission nr improved drinking conditions.

The Carlton probably was the first Christchurch hotel to experiment with seated drinking with the introduction of its beer-garden. Shirley Lodge looked like a gamble when it opened six years ago, seemingly at the back of beyond.

The Bower and the Phoenix were other hotels that took the plunge at about this period. Others saw what people liked, and followed the field.

Today, Shirley Lodge, the Bower Sandridge, Phoenix, the new Russley, the Bush Inn, and probably others, cater for a thousand or more drinkers each Saturday between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. Half these people are seated at tables, and most of the rest are away from the bars at stand-up tables, or shelves along the walls. The Hornby Licensing Trust, whose hotel is not quite a year old, thought its lounge capacity of 180 seats at 36 tables was ample. Last December. the lounge had to be increased in size, and more seating provided. The trust thought its income would be £BOO a week. In fact, it is £l3OO. Suburban hotels have had an advantage because it has been easier for them to obtain land, not only for buildings, but for off-street parking. The new Russley Hotel management thought it had plenty of room for cars, but has had to buy more land for parking. It was the same at the Sandridge. City hotels, limited for physical expansion, have in many cases done away with their old bars to emphasise seated drinking or have got most of their customers away from the bars at stand-up tables.

Some of their licensees say the drift to the suburbs has been arrested. They say city hotels are convenient meeting places after Saturday sport, and that drinkers have found it easier for a “school” to talk round a table rather than strung along a bar. A suburban hotel manager said a man might drink at his favourite pub during the week, but on Saturdays, he took his wife or girt friend with him. “A few years ago, he couldn’t have done this without being associated wit h what used to be known as the ‘cat bar.’ His wife wasn’t allowed in a public bar, and the man himself wasn't keen to drink in the women’s lounge,” said the licensee.

“Now, they can sit down together with friends. I would say that at least half the people in these big lounge bars are women. An Increasing number of women, unaccompanied by men, are coming into the lounge bars.” People had been moved away from the bars, where most of the arguments used to start through jostling and spilt beers. Seated drinking, he contended, was more sociable and leisurely, and had gone a long way to diminishing the “speed up” just before 6 p.m.