Great pubs are killing good pubs. Discuss.

I love the Hope in Carshalton.

It just won my London Pub of the Year award for the fourth time, and a few days later CAMRA turned out to be in full agreement with me, naming as the best pub in Greater London. 

But this isn't about how absolutely fucking awesome this pub is. I'm going to say something controversial, and I'm not I completely believe it to be true, but it's worth floating the idea for debate at least:

Great pubs are killing good pubs. Maybe. 

I'd better explain exactly what I mean by this...

 

Who is the real enemy?

The Hope hasn't always been as good as it is now. There was a time when it was merely one of many good pubs in Carshalton.

Go back, say, 12 years or so, and Carshalton was a great place for a pub crawl. The Hope had arrived, but you also had the Windsor Castle with a great reputation for cask ale that used to host beer festivals in the garden. The Fox and Hounds was decent, as was the Racehorse. The Greyhound was worth stopping in for a pint of Young's, and the Woodman would probably offer a reasonable pint.  

I can only drink so much!

I'm not saying that these pubs were consistently world-beating - they definitely weren't! - but they were all worth visiting. Nowadays, not so much. 

That pub crawl of 2012 isn't a thing. Most folks won't bother with all that faffing about crossing roads, stepping on pavement cracks and timing toilet breaks, when they can just go to the Hope and stop there. Which is entirely understandable.

But it does mean that other pubs in the area that used to be pretty good have suffered. The nearby Sun is a great food venue, and I do pop in there occasionally, but I've had some cask ale in terrible, borderline undrinkable condition in recent years. 

When you think about it, it's not surprising. Local drinkers who want good cask, or a more exciting beer range generally will gravitate towards the place that does it best, which is the Hope. By being outstanding, its success has reduced the other contenders to the status of also-rans.

 

Selsdon Man 

Another example, different but similar, is another of the finalists in my Pub of the Year: The Golden Ark in Selsdon. 

The history of this area is interesting. Until the year 2000 there weren't any pubs at all in Selsdon, due to some ancient legislation to which the area had been subject for countless decades. Eventually Wetherspoons were allowed to set up in the village and the Sir Julian Huxley got a reputation for being one of the best Spoons in South London.

They had more of the guest beers, the quality was always good - it was exactly what Selsdon needed.

In more recent years we've got the Golden Ark too. Which is fantastic. And it immediately became the place where the proverbial Selsdon Men and Women go if they want a good pint. Which, in turn, means that the Wetheroutlet a couple of years down has now been reduced in importance and stature. It's a pretty generic branch now because a significant portion of the beer-enthusiast market goes elsewhere. They go to the Golden Ark. Of course they do. Why wouldn't they?

(Oh, and on September 13 there's some singer-songwriter playing there. Ben something or other. You might want to check me, I mean him, out. I'm sure it'll be a great night!) 

I get that there are counter-examples elsewhere in the country. In places like Derby and Sheffield one successful destination pub can lead to others springing up around them in clusters. Maybe what I've noticed is a London phenomenon? Or confined to areas that can't realistically sustain multiple excellent pubs because there just aren't enough customers.

But there is a philosophical and moral question about the best way to balance the scales. Which is best: One great pub and a handful of indifferent ones, or a town centre with half a dozen pubs, all generally acceptable? Or nothing outstanding, two quite good ones, and five that are absolute dogshit? 

I don't have the answers here (I'm not even sure if I have all the questions) and maybe it's an inevitable  product of the overall decline in pubs and beer consumption in general. Maybe we should just be thankful for the great pubs, the good pubs and indeed any pubs at all? 

But if I'm sort of vaguely right about this, and the degradation of formerly good pubs is an inevitable consequence of the emergence of great ones, how do we feel about it?

It's a troubling thought. For me, at least.