“PUBLIC-HOUSES FOR BABES.”

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XIV, Issue 816, 26 October 1905, Page 24

“PUBLIC-HOUSES FOR BABES.”

This is a headline that will come as a shock to the “ Ironsides” of Tennyson Smith and the Isdtt Brigade in New Zealand. Yet a children’s public-house was opened in London last Monday, and proved an instantaneous success. Its clientele is recruited from the juvenile population of Hoxton and Shoreditch, and their appreciation of “ our pub” (as they have already christened it) is such that the proprietor is arranging to open others. “Shocking!” Not a bit of it. The children’s “ pub” was the result of a happy inspiration born of an honest attempt to run the houses for their elders on a plan which ought to meet with the warni approval of everyone. Less than a fortnight ago an enterprising licensed victualler decided to reopen the old “ Britannia”—a public-house just off the City Road, at one time a rendezvous for the prize-fighting fraternity of the district—on the principle of “ no drink without food.” Foi’ a halfpenny patrons could buy a sandwich, and for another halfpenny a quarter of a pint of ale. They could have the sandwich without the beer, but not the beer without the sandwich. The good news that a large sandwich could be bought for a halfpenny soon became known to the enterprising youngsters of the neighbourhood, who flocked to the “ Britannia,” and, planking their coppers on the zinc counter, demanded to be served. The law does not actually forbid eatables or

non-alcoholic drinks being served to children on licensed premises, but the proprietor felt he could not encourage them to frequent a public bar. The obvious way out of the difficulty was to establish a special public-house for the youngsters. To transform an adjoining house into an ■“ infants’ sandwich bar” was the work of a day or two, and within a few hours of its doors being opened hundreds of small clients were busily munching halfpenny or farthing sandwiches at its long, low counter. Inside the babies’ “ pub-lic-house” is distempered in a cheerful shade of blue, while outside are posted elegant placards, setting forth in large type some of the delectable dainties which can be purchased within for a farthing. Farthing sandwiches are a speciality in the babies’ bar. These contain beef, pressed mutton, cheese, or eggs, flavoured with a sprinkling of mustard and cress, and are daintily wrapped in white tissue paper. Polished taps on the counter - denote the presence of ginger beer, which is specially brewed each day for the patrons of the “ Halfpenny House.” Mr. Pond, who is running the “ Britannia” and its annexe, intends to start 350 houses in various parts of the country on the “ no drink without food” principle, and where the locality seems to demand it he hopes to cater for children also.—“N.Z. Times” London correspondent.