̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - licensing

̽��ֱ��capital of drinking: did 19th-century Liverpool deserve its reputation?

amb206 — Tue, 04 Jul 2017 09:00:00 +0000

“Liverpool had a problem with drink.” With this opening sentence, David Beckingham’s new book, ̽��ֱ��Licensed City: Regulating Drink in Liverpool, 1830-1920, gets straight to the heart of his subject matter.

Beckingham is by no means the only scholar to look at the history of alcohol consumption in an iconic city. But he takes a distinctive geographical approach. He probes how problem drinking was defined largely in relation to public drinking, and links the increase in recorded drunkenness in police statistics to an emerging negative national reputation.

̽��ֱ��Licensed City charts a period in which Liverpool saw phenomenal growth as a booming port with global reach across Britain’s empire. Its population grew tenfold – soaring from just 77,000 in 1801 to 700,000 at the end of the century – as the city absorbed workers seeking employment on ships, in its docks and allied industries.

There were two very different Liverpools in evidence: one the projection of the aspirations of the city’s grandees, their wealth set in stone in some of the country’s finest mid-Victorian buildings; the other the grim reality of insanitary, cheaply constructed housing, with streets that in the popular imagination quickly became “haunts of crime”. ̽��ֱ��gap between the two, Beckingham argues, became a source of municipal anxiety.

Outlets serving and supplying drink expanded in parallel with poverty, pubs and bottle shops (off licences) clustering in areas that were home to low-paid dock workers and casual labourers. Of these, many were Irish migrants who had fled famine at home, only, in the words of a contemporary commentator, “to find death abroad.” They became easy scapegoats in this city of sanitary disaster.

In the second half of the 19th century, the reputation of the city hit a new low with mortality rates substantially higher than the national average. On 28 August 1866, ̽��ֱ��Times newspaper (citing a local Liverpool paper) reported that: “Liverpool has been pronounced the most drunken, the most criminal, the most pauper-oppressed, and the most death-stricken town in England.”

To unpack this record, Beckingham’s primary sources are police reports, and minute books of the city council and licensing magistrates, all held in Liverpool Record Office, as well as local newspapers. They reveal how the anxieties of residents and reform-minded politicians – keen to arrest an emerging national sentiment that the city’s leaders were failing in their civic responsibility – were made manifest in public battles against booze.

Many of those calling for reform belonged to different wings of the temperance movement, and were adamant that the city’s problems had their roots in the over-supply of drink. In some streets it was estimated that there was one public house for every 13 people. As one reformer declared: “Public houses lead to drunkenness and drunkenness to crime.” ̽��ֱ��pub thus became a focal point in the fight to redeem Liverpool’s municipal reputation.

More specifically, so too did the system that gave them their licences. ̽��ֱ��licensing of businesses serving and supplying alcohol can be dated to the 16th century. Beckingham profiles how this ancient system, legislated for nationally and dispensed by local magistrates, was adapted to tackle Liverpool’s distinctive urban challenges.

One such problem for regulators was the use of pubs by prostitutes, keen to solicit the attentions of sailors enjoying leave on shore. Parliament resisted banning women from pubs, though in 1872 it did legislate that publicans should restrict the time spent in them by reputed prostitutes. Prosecutions proved difficult, however, because it was not clear when “reasonable refreshment” ended and more dubious behaviour began.

̽��ֱ��magistrates had another tool at their disposal, however, because licences came up for renewal on an annual basis. This gave Liverpool’s magistrates scope to address problem premises because they could review the management of pubs and threaten to cancel licences. In 1909, for example, a licence was renewed on condition that the publican limit the drinking time of known prostitutes to just four minutes – a measure that now seems laughably impractical.

̽��ֱ��licensing committee also enforced opening hours and age rules for customers, which were successively tightened across the period, and clamped down on so-called ‘child messengers’ sent to pubs to fetch beer.

They also used their discretion to manipulate the layout of pubs in order to target problem behaviours. Many of these were associated with women, from prostitutes in pubs to anxieties about effects on families from mothers who drank, even to the degrading effects of bar work on women.

Responses included restricting the numbers of doors to pubs, even the times at which they could be used, so that women drinkers could be spotted by bar staff, police inspectors and even other customers. Specific features in pubs also came under scrutiny. ̽��ֱ��cosy corners known as snugs (now much loved today by heritage fans) were notorious for allowing immoral activities to go on undetected, with the connivance if not involvement of barmaids.

Design also became a way that brewers could fight back, with their own attempts to reform and reclaim the reputation of the public house. Likewise, battles over licensing were later lauded as a central factor in changing Liverpool’s record and reputation for drunkenness.

Liverpool provides a striking case study for debates surrounding alcohol consumption and the limits of government intervention in the social lives of citizens. Many of the themes in Beckingham’s book have much wider relevance – both to other cities and other periods, including our own.

His contribution is to draw attention to perceptions of problem behaviours: Victorian drinking ‘problems’ were often working-class public order offences identifiable because they were easily visible. Middle-class drinking, behind closed doors, largely escaped official scrutiny. That distinction is both our inheritance and modern licensing’s challenge, he concludes, if it is to respond to today’s definitions of problem drinking.

̽��ֱ��Licensed City: Regulating Drink in Liverpool, 1830-1920 by David Beckingham is published by Liverpool ̽��ֱ�� Press.

In his new book, geographer David Beckingham looks at the rigorous licencing regime that Liverpool’s authorities put in place to tighten their grip on problem drinking in the pubs that proliferated across the city. Similar attitudes frame today’s perceptions of public and private alcohol consumption.

Public houses lead to drunkenness and drunkenness to crime.

19th-century reformer

Martin Lewis from Vancouver Island, Canada

̽��ֱ��Parrot Hotel, Liverpool, 1908

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. For image use please see separate credits above.

Yes

What is knowledge transfer?

ns480 — Wed, 27 May 2009 11:34:22 +0000

It’s all about the transfer of tangible and intellectual property, expertise, learning and skills between academia and the non-academic community. It’s also well recognised by government and funders as an important return on the UK’s investment in academic research, one that provides a significant driving force for enhancing economic growth and societal wellbeing. For academics, KT can be a way of gaining new perspectives on possible directions and approaches for research. This two-way exchange element of KT is at the heart of successful and sustainable collaboration.

Academics are often asked to consider the potential audiences, impact and applications for their work, and increasingly there are opportunities to apply for grants specifically with non-academic collaborative partners. In response, Research Councils UK (RCUK) has recently launched the RCUK Knowledge Exchange and Impact as a single point of access for those interested in KT schemes and activities.

Making the most of research

Discussion around KT often focuses on the formation of spin-out business, or the licensing of intellectual property (IP), based on the outputs of university science and technology-related research. Although these are vitally important areas, KT actually encompasses a much broader range of activities and is not limited to the science and technology disciplines. In terms of activities, KT can be split into six types:

People: When students graduate and join the workforce, they bring with them new knowledge and are effectively helping to ‘regenerate the gene pool’ of industry. ̽��ֱ��temporary placement of students and graduates in companies or in the public or voluntary sectors can be a more directed way of exchanging knowledge on a shorter term basis. One of the longest standing schemes is Knowledge Transfer Partnerships funded by the Technology Strategy Board and supported by most UK Research Councils.

Publication and events: Knowledge is transferred through publication of research outputs, and through events and networking. In Cambridge, events can vary from Horizon Seminars (which provide a first look at new findings and developments at the ̽��ֱ�� and are organised by Research Services Division) to the Corporate Gateway (offering a bespoke programme of customised meetings with leading ̽��ֱ�� researchers and new technology companies in Cambridge).

Collaborative research: This is a powerful means of creating opportunities for innovative knowledge exchange. In Cambridge, examples include the Cambridge Integrated Knowledge Centre (CIKC), which brings together ̽��ֱ�� research, industry secondments, business acumen and manufacturing expertise to help those with exploitable concepts to achieve commercial success in photonics and electronics; and the Institute for Manufacturing (IfM), which creates new ideas and approaches to modern industrial practice – from understanding markets and technologies, through product and process design, to operations, distribution and related services. As a whole, the ̽��ֱ�� typically engages in 650 research agreements, worth £22 million, with industry annually.

Consultancy: ̽��ֱ��provision of domain-specific expert advice and training to external clients by university staff can be a very effective KT mechanism – it can provide a platform for the exchange of both explicit and more tacit knowledge, and a window on areas of possible collaboration. Support for consultancy is one service offered by Cambridge Enterprise Ltd. ̽��ֱ��IfM also disseminates its research outputs through consultancy services provided by the ̽��ֱ��-owned company IfM Education and Consultancy Services Ltd. Together, Cambridge Enterprise and IfM provide consultancy support to more than 200 companies annually.

Licensing: Licensing the right to use specific research outputs (IP such as patentable ideas) is an important KT mechanism. Information on IP that is available for licensing is accessible through various websites, but successful licensing arrangements are long-term relationships often leading to research collaborations and individual contacts. Licensing is a key area of activity for Cambridge Enterprise, with about 50 new commercial agreements closed annually and a portfolio of over 450 active licence agreements.

New businesses: Bringing research outputs to market through the formation of a new business can be particularly appropriate when the application represents a ‘disruption’ to the current market or sector, or where there isn’t any obvious external partner to whom the idea could be licensed. New businesses based on research outputs often build their business models around collaboration with larger, established firms to access expertise, equipment and routes to market. Cambridge has a well-developed ecosystem for supporting this, including student business-plan programmes, area angel networks and access to capital through Cambridge Enterprise Seed Funds (see: ie.cam.ac.uk).

KT is a contact sport

Three key factors seem to underpin successful KT. First, it’s not a ‘zero cost’ activity; it takes effort and time to make it work. Second, it is a ‘contact sport’; it works best when people meet to exchange ideas, sometimes serendipitously, and spot new opportunities. Third, it needs practical, timely and active support at an institutional level – within companies and universities – encouraging a culture of open access and open innovation.

Knowledge transfer (KT) is a term used to encompass a very broad range of activities to support mutually beneficial collaborations between universities, businesses and the public sector.

KT is a ‘contact sport’; it works best when people meet to exchange ideas, sometimes serendipitiously, and spot new opportunities.

Tim Minshall

ExerciseEngineering from Flickr

Happy young business woman shaking hands with another female

Examples of support for KT in Cambridge

Student recruitment and student projects

Direct recruitment of Cambridge graduates: www.careers.cam.ac.uk
Hosting of student or graduate projects: www.ifm.eng.cam.ac.uk/working/studentprojects
Knowledge Transfer Partnerships: www.research-operations.admin.cam.ac.uk/major-funders/knowledge-transfer...

Public availability of research results, events and networking

Direct access to research outputs: www.cam.ac.uk/research
Events and networking: www.cambridgenetwork.co.uk/events; www.cambridgenetwork.co.uk/corporategateway

Collaborative research

Setup of collaborative research projects: www.research-operations.admin.cam.ac.uk

Licensing of research outputs

Working with ̽��ֱ�� inventors to license patentable ideas to new and existing companies: https://www.enterprise.cam.ac.uk/for-external-organisations/available-technologies/

Formation of new businesses

Support to assist with new business formation: www.enterprise.cam.ac.uk; ie.cam.ac.uk

For more information, please contact the author Dr Tim Minshall (thwm100@eng. cam.ac.uk) at the Centre for Technology Management in the IfM. Dr Minshall has extensive experience of supporting industry–academic collaboration, technology transfer and open innovation.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Licence. If you use this content on your site please link back to this page.

Yes