Talk:Saloon

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"2. The best part of a traditional British pub. No longer present in most establishments." What does this mean? Is it an inside joke that will be understood only by Brits? Friday 2 July 2005 03:42 (UTC)

No. Traditionally, pubs consisted of several rooms like a house (the name is short for "public house", after all). Almost all pubs would have had at least a "saloon" and a "public bar"; other rooms one might encounter are the "snug", the "smoke room", the "tap room", etc. In a two-room pub in the past, the drinks in the saloon would have been slightly more expensive in return for nicer surroundings - carpeted floor, soft seats, and a more decorous atmosphere. The public bar would have had stone or wooden floors, hard seats, and possibly ankle-deep sawdust to soak up any spills, mud from labourers' boots, etc. The beer in the public bar would be a little cheaper.

In the fifties, sixties and seventies, many or most pubs were "modernised" by being opened up to a single large room. This is now considered a great mistake by many drinkers, particularly since it usually involved the destruction of historic and sometimes lavish interior decorations.

Some pubs do still have multiple rooms, sometimes still given the traditional names, but they don't charge different prices and the standard of decoration is usually more or less the same throughout. PeteVerdon 12:09, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Pre-prohibition american saloons?

It'd be interesting to have some sort of history or account of american saloons pre-prohibition rather than just linking to the bar article. The saloon seems to have been a much different place. One of the main political forces to push national prohibition through in 1920 in the US was the [anti-saloon league]. Their purpose was not solely to ban alcohol, but to ban saloons as a side effect of banning alcohol

198.175.55.6 15:58, 14 February 2007 (UTC)