"Tim Vanhoof" wrote in message
...
Passport to the Pub
The Tourist's Guide to Pub Etiquette by Kate Fox

From
http://www.sirc.org/publik/pub.html , a scientific description of
British pub behaviour
Research findings: In observation-studies, we timed first-time tourists
to find out exactly how long it would take them to discover the
no-waiter-service rule

The problem is that this isn't quite true. Waiter service is rare nowadays,
although it used to be very common in large multi-roomed pubs in which not
every room had a bar. It still exists in a few places, most notably the tiny
number of pubs which have no bar or beer pumps, in which beer is served by
gravity from barrels kept in a cellar or tap room. An example is the Lord
Nelson at Burnham Thorpe, where you come in, sit down (or stand around) and
the gaffer asks you what you want. He then goes off with tray and glasses to
fetch your beer.

Alan Harrison