The man who told you to put your phone away and mind your language in the pub has died. Peter Langan, the no-nonsense brewer who ran the Langan's chain and later founded the Purity Brewing Co., passed away aged 81. Sources close to the family confirm he died peacefully at home after a short illness.
Langan was a figure who divided opinion. To his admirers, he was a custodian of the great British pub. To his critics, he was a relic from a more authoritarian age. But there is no denying his impact. He built a brewing empire on the simple premise that pubs should be places of conversation, not screens.
In 2005, he banned mobile phones in all his pubs. Long before it became a talking point, before soft-touch managers started putting up “No phone zones”, Langan simply threw people out. Staff were instructed to confiscate phones at the bar. Customers who protested were shown the door. He once told me: “If you want to stare at a screen, stay at home. The pub is for drinking and talking.”
He also banned swearing. Not the odd expletive, but persistent, loud profanity. His rules were printed on cards behind every bar: ‘No phones. No swearing. No trouble.’ It was a simple code that he believed kept the atmosphere civil. Did it work? His pubs were packed. There was no shortage of customers willing to abide by his rules.
But there is a darker side to the story. Uncovered documents seen by this paper reveal that Langan’s methods were not always cordial. A number of former employees, speaking on condition of anonymity, described a culture of fear. “He would stand by the bar and watch. If he saw you look at your watch, you’d get a bollocking,” one ex-landlord told me. “He sacked a barman for having a nose ring.”
This was no soft touch. Langan was a man of iron principles, but also iron discipline. His business records, filed at Companies House, show that staff turnover was high. Yet he never had problems recruiting. Perhaps that was because he paid above the living wage.
His legacy is complicated. The craft beer revolution that he helped to pioneer with Purity’s award-winning ales is now a mainstream success. He built a brewery from nothing, with loans and a stubborn refusal to compromise. In 2018, when the market was saturated with trendy hazy IPAs, he stubbornly stuck to traditional cask ales. “He was a perfectionist who believed beer should be clear and taste of hops,” said a former head brewer.
But the man who wanted to clean up the pub never cleaned up his own past. In 2019, he was fined for failing to declare a political donation to the Conservative Party. The Electoral Commission found that he had breached rules by failing to report £15,000 in donations as a non-registered company. He apologised, paid the fine, and moved on.
His funeral next week is expected to be attended by industry figures ranging from the Campaign for Real Ale to senior executives from the big pub groups. His family has asked that phones be left at home.
There is a fitting irony: the man who banned phones will have a phone-free funeral. In death, as in life, Langan’s rules are in place.
RIP Peter Langan: a brewer who made you put down your smartphone and remember that the best conversation comes over a pint. Whether you loved him or loathed him, you understood where you stood.
