That five foot tall feeling

[bungeejumper]

The local boozer I mentioned yesterday has another curious feature, and one that doesn't seem like a good idea at all. The entire bar is on a platform eight inches up from floor level, which means that the bar staff tower over the customers' heads. And which invokes a certain Brobdingnagian feeling as you scrummage to get served.

Well, it does if you're five foot nine like me. I long ago got tired of having trouble getting served in London City boozers, where everybody else seemed to be six foot two, so maybe it's just bringing out the long-submerged Bonaparte complex in me. But what exactly is the thinking behind the decision to put the bar and its staff up on a plinth?

I've seen it in theatre bars, where I imagine that it probably helps amid the interval scrummage. And I can imagine that it would be useful in the kinds of pubs where fights break out. But it isn't very friendly - must be hell for women, many of whom would be reduced to four foot six, so to speak.

Is it a fashion thing? (Last owner of this pub was Marco Pierre White, who crashed it and bailed out.) Any other explanations?

BJ

[Hallucigenia]

I'd assume it was a plumbing thing - for some reason they couldn't dig into the floor and so they've had to lay the lines carrying the beer on the floor surface and built a platform over them.

[sg31]

I'd assume it was a plumbing thing - for some reason they couldn't dig into the floor and so they've had to lay the lines carrying the beer on the floor surface and built a platform over them.

A very good point.

I always thought it was to intimidate any awkward customers. Hard to get stroppy with someone who is towering over you. I've no idea why I formed that idea.

[AleisterCrowley]

It is handy if they need to keep an eye on who's next/who's trouble etc.

[Rhyd6]

You think you've got problems I am 5ft tall and long ago learned how to produce a loud and piercing whistle after being ignored by various bar staff. In my youth, when we often braved a night out in Chester, I always carried a hatpin which I found most affetctive to clear a path to the bar. I only had to use it when several cries of "excuse me may I get to the bar" had been ignored.

R6