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Interior Design, Good pub in Belgium, Good Birmingham Bar and the European Vote Date: 04/08/2009

Recently I and Melony tripped to Brussels. What an absolute Joy the city is.

The town square is a picture at night (looking from the museum at the town hall). What wonderful and by modern standards eccentric architecture the old city has. Brussels certainly gets our vote.

 

Returning from Brussels it becomes clear why some of our community bar are struggling and in need of restoration, change of tact and interior design. I honestly believe it is an identity crisis and a shift from what is considered sociably acceptable.

In Brussels drinking in a pub restaurant, good pub, etc, is a relaxed affair with friends and colleagues. In the UK, drinking after a day work in a good pub near your work or a pub near your home is borderline social taboo. Drinking in a good pub i.e. a pub near work with no interior design and lots of friends used to be the norm.

Now, however, having a drink with friends after work in a pub restaurant, good pub, etc whether it has had the interior design enhanced by an interior designer or it has not had interior design from an interior designer is frowned upon by society. This is one of the many factors why good pub s are struggling. A good pub in Brussels means a community bar. There are lots of good pub s in the UK and community bar i.e. there is a pub near you that with a little leadership can be used not only to meet and have fun but also as a base for meetings and raising money for the local community.

A Monday night in the centre of Birmingham in a Birmingham bar is usually quiet. Even the Birmingham bar in St. Paul’s Square are not busy.

A Monday night in Brussels town square is lively. Friends are chatting and there is a busy commotion. A good pub in Brussels is not like the Birmingham Bar. For Birmingham bar to increase profits their role in society needs to change. There needs to be a sense of the community bar. We have some superbly stylish architecture in Birmingham and some super Birmingham bar, some with a European feel, but, they will only be great when our culture becomes more European in its acceptance of what a good pub represents and the benefits to the community of a good pub.