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Last orders for Sevenoaks pubs? |
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Page 7 of 7
 Barry Dennis, The Anchor, London Road
BARRY DENNIS, The Anchor, London Road
Barry Dennis, landlord of the Anchor in London Road, describes his pub as “a normal little boozer” which he runs “without trying to be too clever”. He’s been there for nearly 30 years (how does he look so young?) and plans to continue. The grandson of a London market porter, he comes from a publican family and the Anchor is the kind of old-fashioned pub that manages to buck all the trends. No fashionable leather sofas or relaxed Mediterranean-style dining here.
“How do I survive? Because I’m a good guy,” he jokes. Barry has seen half the town’s pubs vanish, but is still an optimist. “There will always be a place for pubs,” he says. Will he be here in five years time? “I’d like to think so. I don’t see why not. People still like to come out and enjoy themselves, the social part. If you can make it enjoyable, it’s human nature. Sitting indoors on your own with a can of lager, no matter how cheap it is, isn’t enjoyable.”
The Anchor is one of the last refuges for traditional town centre drinkers who don’t want to sit in a themed food-and-beverage outlet, but Barry knows the trade is changing. “Times have changed. Pubs are part of the social environment, the community. Society has changed and that has a big effect on pubs. It used to be packed out on a Friday night when people got their pay packet and that went on over Saturday and Sunday. Now you can be packed out on a Tuesday.”
The Anchor still has a darts board and serves basic pub grub. Its Blues n’ Bottle music nights attract people from way beyond Sevenoaks, but in other respects it’s the kind of place without a garden or a terrace that many experts said would be doomed by the smoking ban. “We’re wet-led, we sell mostly beer, we’re landlocked and have an older clientele, but I still say people will find a way round it. Not as many people smoke as I thought. I used to think it was about 50 per cent, but now it’s a quarter or less.”
When he was young there was hot competition to take over pub tenancies. “In our family we had seven pubs, there was a queue and you had to know someone to get a pub. Now you can’t give them away. Some people are coming in to the business for the wrong reasons, just to get a roof over their head.” But despite higher taxes and a rising tide of paperwork, he is confident that traditional pubs like his have a future.
Barry believes the best and safest environment to drink is in a pub: “Not on your own at home and definitely not round the back of Tesco with a big bottle of cider. That’s where the government seem to have lost their way.”
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 30 April 2008 )
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