Licensed to Sell – The History and Heritage of the Public House by Geoff Brandwood, Andrew Davison and Michael Slaughter, English Heritage 2004.

Authored by members of CAMRA’s Pub Heritage Group, this is the definitive volume on the development of the British pub building. It explains how pubs took their present form and examines in detail the important parts of the pub, its interior. The erudite but eminently readable text is supplemented with many sumptuous photos. Available from the CAMRA bookshop.

Note: All the pictures in this section of the web site are by Michael Slaughter, who was the photographer for Licensed to Sell

Beer: The Story of the Pint, Martyn Cornell, Headline, 2003.

Martyn Cornell traces the history of the pint from the beginnings of beer back in the days of Mesoptania, to current day Britain

Victorian Pubs, Mark Girouard, Yale University Press, 1984.

A classic book dealing especially with London but which gives an excellent overview of pub building in its golden age - the nineteenth-century. He explains how interiors evolved, how they were furnished and equipped, and who the architcts and designers were. All this is set within the broader context of social and political history.

The English Alehouse: A Social History 1200 – 1830. Peter Clark, Longman, 1983.

Peter Clark traces the development of the English Alehouse from rather rudimentary beginnings to their emergence as a fully fledged institution in the sixteenth century.

Beer and Britannia: An Inebriated History of Britain, Peter Haydon, Sutton Publishing, 2001.

Peter Haydon provides history a of ale and beer, alongside the history of the ale-house, tavern and pub, providing a major part of the social history of the nation, including the (mostly unsuccessful) efforts of the Church, the Puritans, temperance crusaders and the taxman to curb the boisterous habits of the English.