Jim, it is a shame about the walls getting knocked down in pubs but the trend continues... One drawback as far as I'm concerned is for folk clubs and sessions (and perhaps other events). I believe it's much better to have these events in a separate room and allow people the choice of whether to enjoy the music or to enjoy a pint and a chat in the other bar than to try to run one in one big room where the chances are, a number of the locals will have no interest in the music.

The landlord of one pub in Llandudno hit on an interesting idea when he decided to open his pub out. He built a partition wall on rails. During the daytime, he operated the pub with a family room. He also used 2 rooms for the folk club and perhaps for other functions. On other nights, he tended to have singers in and the pub used to get quite packed - on those nights he ran the pub as one big room.

Jon