We set off to west London to examine our first pub. Arriving in Hampstead for around 4pm we set about finding a good first location, after walking down through Hampstead for around 20 minutes we found a nice ‘old man’s pub that looked like it ticked all the boxes. Creaky wooden floorboards, rows and rows of beer taps and most importantly friendly staff who were willing to talk to us. The first member of bar staff we spoke to sat with us for a good 10 minutes and told us all about the history of the pub, the clientele and the role it has played in its local community for over 40 years.  

Unfortunately, this appeared to just be a case of beginner’s luck so to speak. After the success of the first pub, we attempted to get some interviews from the staff of different pubs and found no real success whatsoever. People were either too busy to speak to us, or quite reluctant for the interviews to be recorded. This proved to be quite a big issue going forward with our project, especially from an ethical standpoint. The ethical dilemma we faced was that we couldn’t record interviews without the interviewees consent to potentially end up as part of the final project, we carried interview consent forms with us for the people we spoke with to sign. While these are an absolute necessity both from an ethical and a legal position, they did appear to put people off slightly. Given that our project is completely sound orientated, there isn’t much point in taking interviews without any audio. A second ethical issue we encountered was making the judgement on who to approach for interviews. In the first pub we asked if we could interview the owner, we were pointed towards his direction as he was sat in the corner of the pub with two presumably friends. Personally, I felt that interrupting someone who is clearly just in the pub for a quiet afternoon with their friends or family, is a bit intrusive and not really worth asking for an interview from them.