Close to heaven

I'm sure the Catholic Herald won't mind, but here's a chunk of a piece by columnist Harry Mount (Westminster School, Magdalen College Oxford, Bullingdon member)

Round the corner from my office in Fitzrovia, central London, there is a pub that’s close to heaven.

The Yorkshire Grey is at the end of a pedestrianised little avenue. It’s near Broadcasting House – so it’s full of BBC workers gossiping away. Perfect for nosy eavesdroppers like me.

And the only reason you can eavesdrop on them is there’s no piped music or fruit machine and – bliss – all mobile phones and internet devices are banned.

The digital ban is a policy in Samuel Smith pubs like this one. It’s been imposed by Humphrey Smith, the owner of the chain, to promote conversation.

The ban caused a row this month when Sally Lait, a visitor to a Samuel Smith pub, complained about staff stopping her and her friends using their phones. Despite the pub being full of signs explaining the ban, Lait and her friends had kept on using their phones for “photographs, conversation enhancement and finding information”, as she put it.

I’m with Humphrey Smith on this one. I’ve always thought the best devices for conversation enhancement were the mouth in conjunction with the voicebox and brain.

The biggest conversation-killer in history is the mobile phone. Think of those families crouched over their phones, in their own little silos, sitting next to each other but inhabiting different universes.

Before piped music, fruit machines and mobiles, all pubs were like the Yorkshire Grey – places for gentle conversation and drinking.

And as background music has grown louder, so have pub visitors. You go inside most pubs and the conversations are shouted. A shouted conversation leaves no room for subtleties; for one-liners, delivered sotto voce; for serious, interesting, sad or honest chat. Dreaded banter flourishes, with dull witticisms bellowed at each other.

I’ve got some advice for Sally Lait. You’re allowed to drink somewhere else.