Charmaine Ham
I came to Plymouth because my son lived in Plymouth. And ended up taking on this pub – The Masonic Inn, for the last 20 years… Business hasn’t been great since COVID. Because people have changed in their ways, and drinking at home, and things like that. So it’s very difficult to sustain it. In fact, nearly impossible to sustain it. And I, along with lots of other pubs, am giving that up, because financially you can’t maintain it.
Plymouth is made up of all walks of life. People with money people without money it doesn’t matter. How they behave that’s what matters.
I think if pubs go, it’ll be a big loss. We’ve lost, like, the mental hospitals and all the support, because there was no money. These people need somewhere to go, and, like, some of them are like little lost children. They have nothing else. They don’t want to play badminton, and go walking, and rock climbing, and jumping out of planes. They don’t want to do that. Yeah? Just ordinary places. Where you can meet people, and maybe make new friends too. Yeah? New contacts. Because others know things about where you can go for this help, or that help.
The pub can be a place to go. I mean for company… I’m talking about ordinary people. All walks of life. Just come in to socialise. They might go pub to pub, they might stay on at one pub. They’re meeting people… Even contractors that come here to finish work and [otherwise] they sit staring at four walls, so they come out, you know. To meet people, just meet people, to see anybody – just that interaction.