Editing Pub (section)

===Counter===
[[File:Inside T.P. Smith's Pub, Dublin, Ireland.jpg|thumb|right|T.P. Smith's Pub, Dublin, Ireland]]
The pub took the concept of the bar counter to serve the beer from [[gin palace]]s in the 18th century.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.morningadvertiser.co.uk/Article/2019/03/05/How-did-historic-alehouses-taverns-and-inns-evolve-into-the-pubs-we-see-today|title=How-did-historic-alehouses-taverns-and-inns-evolve-into-the-pubs-we-see-today|first=Phil |last=Mellows|date=5 March 2019|work=morningadvertiser.co.uk}}</ref> Until that time beer establishments used to bring the beer out to the table or benches, as remains the practice in (for example) [[beer garden]]s and some other drinking establishments in Germany.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VJogAQAAIAAJ&q=jug |title=Licensed to sell: the history and heritage of the public house|page=93|author1=Geoffrey K. Brandwood |author2=Andrew Davison |author3=Michael Slaughter |isbn=1-85074-906-X |publisher=English Heritage|year= 2004 |access-date=15 October 2010 }}</ref> A bar might be provided for the manager or publican to do paperwork while keeping an eye on his or her customers, and the term "bar" applied to the publican's office where one was built,<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nlGFCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA80|page=80|title=A History of Drink and the English, 1500–2000|first= Paul |last=Jennings|publisher=Routledge|date= 5 February 2016 |isbn=9781317209171}}</ref> but beer would be tapped directly from a cask or barrel on a table, or kept in a separate taproom and brought out in jugs.<ref>{{cite journal|url=http://www.breweryhistory.com/journal/archive/123/Pub.pdf|website=breweryhistory.com|title=The vanishing faces of the traditional pub|first=Geoff |last=Brandwood}}</ref>

When purpose built Victorian pubs were built after the [[Beerhouse Act 1830]],<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/foodanddrinknews/8287145/The-rise-and-fall-of-the-British-pub.html|title=The rise and fall of the British pub|first=Nick |last=Collins|work=[[The Daily Telegraph]]|date=28 January 2011}}</ref> the main room was the public room with a large serving bar copied from the gin houses, the idea being to serve the maximum number of people in the shortest possible time. The other, more private, rooms had no serving bar—they had the beer brought to them from the public bar. A number of pubs in the Midlands or the North still retain this set up, though now customers fetch the drinks themselves from the taproom or public bar. One of these is the Vine, known locally as the Bull and Bladder, in [[Brierley Hill]] near Birmingham, another the Cock at Broom, Bedfordshire a series of small rooms served drinks and food by waiting staff.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thecockatbroom.co.uk/|title=The Cock at Broom – 01767 314411 One of England's Real Heritage Pubs|website=thecockatbroom.co.uk|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150516074244/http://www.thecockatbroom.co.uk/|archive-date=16 May 2015}}</ref> By the early 1970s there was a tendency to change to one large drinking room as breweries were eager to invest in interior design and theming.<ref>Evans, David G., et al. (1975) ''The Manchester Pub Guide, Manchester and Salford City Centres''. Manchester: Manchester Pub Surveys; pp. 1–4</ref>

[[Isambard Kingdom Brunel]], the British engineer and railway builder, introduced the idea of a circular bar into the [[Swindon station]] pub in order that customers were served quickly and did not delay his trains. These island bars became popular as they also allowed staff to serve customers in several different rooms surrounding the bar.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ratebeer.com/Story.asp?StoryID=312 |title=Time Gentlemen Please! |publisher=ratebeer.com |access-date=15 October 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100206134657/http://www.ratebeer.com/Story.asp?StoryID=312 |archive-date=6 February 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X9gOXnKxdCoC&q=Brunel++Swindon+station&pg=PA30 |title=West from Paddington |first=Stuart |last=Cole|page=30 |publisher=Etica Press Ltd|year= 2007|isbn= 978-1-905633-05-0 |access-date=15 October 2010 }}</ref>