The Moon Under Water

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The Moon Under Water was a 1946 essay by George Orwell. In the essay, which was published in the Evening Standard, Orwell provided a detailed explanation of the perfect pub, the Moon Under Water. The essay became the basis upon which the Wetherspoons chain of pubs were built and a number of them still carry the name.

Orwell stipulated ten key points that his perfect London pub should have (his criteria for country pubs being different, but unspecified).

  1. The pub's architecture and fittings must be uncompromisingly Victorian.
  2. Games, such as darts, are only played in the public part of the bar; the saloon bar, ladies' bar, bottle-and-jug bar, and upstairs dining room.
  3. The pub is quiet enough to talk, with the house possessing neither a radio nor a piano.
  4. The barmaids know the customers by name and take an interest in everyone.
  5. It sells tobacco and cigarettes, aspirins and stamps, and lets you use the phone.
  6. There is a snack counter where you can get liver-sausage sandwiches, mussels (a specialty of the house), cheese, pickles and [...] large biscuits with caraway seeds.
  7. Upstairs, six days a week, you can get a good, solid lunch -- for example, a cut off the joint, two vegetables and boiled jam roll -- for about three shillings.
  8. [...] draught stout with it [...] It is a creamy sort of stout, and it goes better in a pewter pot.
  9. They are particular about their drinking vessels at "The Moon Under Water" and never, for example, make the mistake of serving a pint of beer in a handleless glass. Apart from glass and pewter mugs, they have some of those pleasant strawberry-pink china ones.
  10. [...] You go through a narrow passage leading out of the saloon, and find yourself in a fairly large garden.

He wrote that he did not know of any pubs that had more than eight of these combined in the one location.

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