Gothenburg Public House System

File:The Red Goth - geograph.org.uk - 161676.jpg]]

File:The Gothenburg pub, Fallin, Scotland.jpg

The Gothenburg or Trust Public House system originated in the 1860s in Gothenburg, Sweden,{{cite book|last=Duncan|first=Robert|title=The Mineworkers|year=2005|publisher=Birlinn|location=Edinburgh|isbn=1-84158-365-0|page=192}} in an attempt to control the consumption of spirits. Earlier in the century, 34 litres annual per capita consumption of spirits was recorded in Sweden. In 1855 the country proscribed domestic distillation. The city of Gothenburg awarded its sole retail licence for spirits to a trust, with the aim of controlling consumption. The shareholders of the trust were to receive a maximum return of 5% annually and all other profits were to be used to benefit the local community. The town treasury was to control the income generated and use it to provide libraries, museums, parks and other community facilities. The success of the system led to its spread throughout Sweden and further afield.

In Scotland

File:The Goth. - geograph.org.uk - 33835.jpg]]

File:The Goth - geograph.org.uk - 256650.jpg]]

File:The Dean Tavern - geograph.org.uk - 72546.jpg]]

In Scotland, pubs run under the Gothenburg system are often colloquially known as "Goths".{{Cite web|url=http://www.thegoth.co.uk:80/15.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130718075547/http://www.thegoth.co.uk/15.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=18 July 2013|title=History – The Goth|date=18 July 2013|access-date=6 May 2014}}

Although controversial within the movement, some Scottish temperance campaigners advocated the system. The passing of the Industrial and Provident Societies Act 1893 (56 & 57 Vict. c. 39) allowed its adoption,{{cite book|last=Hutton|first=Guthrie|title=Fife – The Mining Kingdom|year=1999|publisher=Stenlake|location=United Kingdom|isbn=978-1-84033-092-2|page=44}}

and it took hold, particularly in coal mining communities, where mining companies had previously opposed the granting of pub licences.{{cite web|title=The Gothenburg Public House System|url=http://rls.org.uk/database/record.php?usi=000-000-001-357-L|work=Pathfinder Pack on The Gothenburg Public House System|publisher=Resources for Learning in Scotland|access-date=12 February 2011}}{{cite web|title=Gothenburg Public Houses|url=http://www.scottishmining.co.uk/18.html|work=Scottish Mining Website|access-date=12 February 2011}} There were several 'Goths' in the Lothians, one each in Stirlingshire and Ayrshire and, until 1914, more than twenty in Fife, where the system took its strongest hold; strong links between Fife and Sweden had been established in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century due to the supply of coal to Swedish Railways by the Fife Coal Company.{{cite interview

| first =Ian

| last =Jack

| subject-link = Ian Jack

| interviewer =Gordon Brewer

| title =16/10/2016, Good Morning Scotland – BBC Radio Scotland

| url = http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07y79c7

| work =Good Morning Scotland

| publisher = BBC Radio Scotland

| date =16 October 2016

| access-date =16 October 2016

|at=55:50 minutes in

| quote =...the Fife Coal Company in particular exported lots of coal leading up to the 1914 war and I suppose the last twenty years before… to Swedish Railways, so there was a kind of traffic between Sweden and Scotland and there was a model society, as it were, in Gothenburg in which communities owned things, like pubs, together, jointly and the profits from the takings from alcohol went into improvements such as…tennis courts, new street lighting or whatever and that model was brought back to Fife especially… as you say it may well appear in Fallin and Prestonpans as well, I didn’t know that, and these pubs were run by these things called the Gothenburg Society and they were known as "Goths". I think in Dunfermline there was the Top Goth and the Bottom Goth, I’m not sure now and… what was the joke at school… When Did You Last See Your Father was the picture… "doon at the Goth!”.}} The local coal companies were often a source of funds to establish these pubs and were usually a dominant force on the boards of the trusts, with the miners themselves usually holding representation and sometimes contributing in part to the capital.

A premise of these pubs was that they were not to be attractive or welcoming, to discourage drinking, and the sale of spirits was not to be encouraged. No credit was given and betting and gambling were banned, as were any form of game or amusement (even dominoes).{{cite web|title=Hill of Beath Tavern|url=http://www.scottishmining.co.uk/90.html|work=Scottish Mining Website|access-date=13 February 2011}}

Examples of facilities and beneficiaries funded by the system included libraries, museums, parks, bowling and cricket grounds and pavilions, cinemas, community centres or 'Gothenburg halls' and grants to galas, charities, clubs and societies and for the funding of district nurses and ambulances.

Today, some of these establishments remain as pubs but only the Dean Tavern in Newtongrange, the Goth in Armadale, the Prestoungrange Gothenburg in Prestonpans,{{cite book|last=Cooper|first=Malcolm|title=Raising the Bar|year=2010 |publisher=Historic Scotland|isbn=978-1-84917-012-3|page=29}} and The Gothenburg in Fallin, Stirling,{{cite web |url=http://www.prestoungrange.org/gothenburg/html/news/show_news.asp?newsid=2865 |title=The Gothenburg : News – Discovered: another Goth still prospers @ Fallin – by Stirling |publisher=Prestoungrange.org |date=2010-09-10 |access-date=2014-04-12 |archive-date=13 April 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140413145154/http://www.prestoungrange.org/gothenburg/html/news/show_news.asp?newsid=2865 |url-status=dead }} are still run under the Gothenburg system.

The Goth in Armadale was built in 1901 and extensively remodeled in 1924; it serves as a landmark on the Main Street of the town and consists of a stone frontage with an Art Nouveau public clock tower.{{cite book |last= Jaques and McKean |date=1 September 1994 |title= West Lothian – An Illustrated Architectural Guide |location=Scotland |publisher=The Rutland Press |pages=54–56 |isbn=978-1873190258}}{{cite book |last=Hendrie |first=William |date=1986 |title=Discovering West Lothian |location=Edinburgh |publisher=John Donald Publishers |pages=184–201 |isbn=9780859761628}}

In England

Joseph Chamberlain took an interest in the Gothenburg system and proposed a version of it to a Parliamentary Select Committee on Intemperance in 1877.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nIvLCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA139|title=The politics of alcohol: A history of the drink question in England|first=James|last=Nicholls|date=19 July 2013|publisher=Oxford University Press|via=Google Books|isbn=9781847793324}} This did not gain momentum but the issue was raised again in the 1890s by the Bishop of Chester, Francis Jayne, who wrote letters to The Times and published articles on the subject.{{Cite journal|title=Successful Public-House Reform|author=Jayne, Francis John|year=1894|journal=The North American Review|volume=158|issue=450|pages=520–528|jstor = 25103324}} He also founded the People's Refreshment House Association Limited.{{cite ODNB|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/32350|title=Joseph Chamberlain|year=2004 |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/32350 |access-date=30 July 2019}} His ideas were not approved of by the Church of England Temperance Society who were hostile to the idea of "working men" having improved pubs and encouraged them to make home and family the focus of their leisure time. As well as Jayne's association, which had 130 establishments, there was a similar "Gothenburg-inspired" group called the Central Public House Trust Association, which owned about 250 "trust houses" in England and Wales by 1914.

Cultural references

File:New Goth 4630.JPG

The Number One Goth in Cardenden was referenced by Ian Rankin as the first pub in which his character John Rebus bought a round of drinks.{{cite news|last=Allardyce|first=Jason|title=Audit Scotland in second Fife Council probe|url=http://news.scotsman.com/henrymcleishsofficegateaffair/Audit-Scotland-in-second-Fife.2308722.jp|access-date=13 February 2011|newspaper=The Scotsman|date=10 March 2002}} Parts of Irvine Welsh's novella Kingdom of Fife are set in the New Goth in Cowdenbeath.{{cite book|last=Welsh|first=Irvine|title=If You Liked School, You'll Love Work...|year=2007|publisher=Jonathon Cape|location=London|isbn=978-0-224-07588-6|pages=205 onwards}} The pub in the fictional village of Newton of Wemyss in A Darker Domain by Val McDermid was formerly a Goth.{{cite book|last=McDeermid|first=Val|title=A Darker Domain|year=2008|publisher=Harper Collins|isbn=978-0-00-724329-7|page=41}}

References

External links

[http://www.battleofprestonpans1745.org/prestonpans/html/press/experiments/ Transcript of British 'Gothenburg' Experiments and Public-House Trusts] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110725083957/http://www.battleofprestonpans1745.org/prestonpans/html/press/experiments/ |date=25 July 2011 }} by Joseph Rowntree and Arthur Sherwell (1903)
[http://www.armadale.org.uk/goth.htm A Short History of the Armadale Public House Society Limited] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160529120140/http://www.armadale.org.uk/goth.htm |date=29 May 2016 }}
[https://web.archive.org/web/20160424221330/http://www.deantavern.com/ Web site of The Dean Tavern]
[http://www.facebook.com/gothenburg.fallin/ Facebook page of Fallin Gothenburg]
[http://www.thegoth.uk/ Web site of Prestoungrange Gothenburg] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171205101529/http://www.thegoth.uk/ |date=5 December 2017 }}
[http://www.scran.ac.uk/database/results.php?QUICKSEARCH=1&search_term=gothenburg Related images] at the Scran educational resource
[https://www.fifetoday.co.uk/heritage-and-retro/retro/goth-pubs-community-landmarks-in-fife-mining-villages-slowly-disappearing-3380191 Goth pubs: Community landmarks in Fife mining villages slowly disappearing]