SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
When Peter Scott bought a house in a leafy suburb of London, part of the appeal was the local pub, just three doors down the street. But a few months after Peter moved in, The Lion pub went out of business. Peter then had a mad idea - I mean, he's British, after all - why not buy the pub? So Peter Scott clubbed together with other members of the community, and late last year, The Lion (imitating lion) reopened its doors for business. Peter Scott joins us now from Teddington, London. Thanks so much for being with us.
PETER SCOTT: Thank you, Scott. It's a pleasure to be here.
SIMON: Why buy the pub instead of just going to another one?
SCOTT: Well, I think it's very close, and I am all for convenience. But also I think pubs are important. And if you live in a community, especially as I do on a - quite a close-knit community, you want a place to meet, to socialize with your neighbors, to do all those neighborly things that one would wish to do. And it's easier to do that in close proximity. It's also an extremely nice building, which I wouldn't have wished to have been developed into apartments, which was probably the alternative.
SIMON: Help us understand what role the pub plays in British life.
SCOTT: Well, so traditionally, it plays a role around alcohol and food and company and evening entertainment and so on and so forth. But increasingly, as other kind of third spaces, if you like - i.e., not work and not home - have been closed across the U.K., it's become a hub for the whole community, not just those who want a pint of beer or an evening meal. And so now it plays all kinds of different roles. But the primary one is that ability to bring the community together. You can walk into a pub, especially a pub like ours, and you'll be confident that you'll know someone there. And if you don't know someone there, you'll know the barman, and you'll feel like you know someone there. And that's a pretty special thing and increasingly rare as time goes on in this country, at least.
SIMON: Yeah. I understand this isn't your full-time job, right?
SCOTT: Certainly not. No. And indeed, I have a full-time job running another company. We have a management team in place in the pub who are primarily responsible for the day-to-day running of the business.
SIMON: What are the challenges of running a pub?
SCOTT: There are several. Primarily, it's a tough environment for hospitality, I think, across the world, probably, but certainly in the U.K., pressures on costs. And as costs go up, you, of course, can't and wouldn't wish to pass all of those costs onto your customers because they'll cease to be your customers. So you're constantly squeezed in a financial sense. Other challenges include - certainly to those of us who are new to the business - understanding how hospitality works, frankly, and understanding how the people in it are motivated and what kinds of people work in the industry, so challenges around finding and retaining really strong staff. And then myriad challenges around suppliers and food and all kinds of things. So it's been a learning curve, that's for sure.
SIMON: A lot of pubs have been closing in the U.K., haven't they?
SCOTT: They absolutely have. Yeah. And I think that's partly because of the pressures on costs that I was referring to earlier - taxes, etc., - but also because the old model, which relied essentially on a pubco leasing the property downwards to a tenant, doesn't work so well when people are not constantly going to the pub drinking alcohol, etc., where pubs have to adapt into other spaces. I think that's proven a real challenge, and those pubcos who tend to be the landlords of the tenants who then operate haven't always been as supportive as they could have been of the tenants that serve them.
SIMON: Do you have a pub quiz at The Lion?
SCOTT: We certainly do. Every Tuesday. If you're in the area, please do come on down.
SIMON: (Laughter).
SCOTT: We're not far from Richmond. If you're visiting "Ted Lasso's" shoot or Hampton Court, we're just down the road.
SIMON: My favorite fictional team.
SCOTT: Yeah.
SIMON: But you would be my favorite real pub. Question that might strike you as somewhat out of line. There's a man named B. J. Leiderman who does our theme music. Does he ever come in for a pint?
SCOTT: He may, but I don't know him personally.
SIMON: OK. Just thought I'd ask. If we were buying a round for you, what would you have?
SCOTT: I would probably have a craft lager, I think, or potentially, certainly in the wintertime, I'd have a stout, possibly a Guinness.
SIMON: Ah. Well, cheers.
SCOTT: Thank you very much. Cheers to you.
SIMON: Peter Scott, one of the owners of The Lion pub in Teddington, London. Thanks so much for being with us.
SCOTT: Thank you very much. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
