A correspondent has asked me about the practice of giving a small tip to bar staff by saying “And your own” or “One for yourself” when paying for a round. This, as far as I know, is something unique to Manchester and the surrounding areas and I have never come across it anywhere else.
Perhaps it is a hangover from the days of waiter service, although that was certainly found in other parts of the country. It’s certainly something I would associate more with the older generation of pubs and pubgoers, although it’s still fairly commonplace.
You probably wouldn’t offer a tip for a single drink, but maybe for a big round, or if you'd been there all night, or if you'd received particularly good service from a specific member of staff. 20p would be par for the course, maybe going up to 50p for a large and/or complicated round, but anything more would be taking the piss.
It’s something distinctly different from offering to buy a drink for a member of staff, which in any case is often frowned upon nowadays.
We do it in Leeds too, often for a large round or at the end of the night. Staff often have the option of taking a drink ot taking it as a tip.
ReplyDeleteSeen it everywhere but mostly in the North. Certaining an admirable practice.
ReplyDeleteI had it happen to me once during the month I spent brewing and working the bar at the Woolpack Inn in Eskdale, Cumbria in 2007. It was a large group of hikers in for most of the evening, and they bought me a pint at the end of the night, which I drank after locking up. Perhaps they were trying to confuse the American or something.
ReplyDeleteIt's always happened in Merseyside, but I don't recall seeing it in Manchester. Nowadays 20p is usually taken.
ReplyDeleteI've seen it in a few places in Manchester, but it's not universal even here. I first saw it at the folk club I used to go to - always "and your own", and the staff would always skim off 20p and put it in the tip jar. I tried it at a pub in the centre & got an earnest explanation from the barman that he'd deducted exactly (whatever), which was the price of a half of the same bitter that I was drinking. Not quite what I was expecting, although I didn't grudge him it.
ReplyDeleteI've seen it and down it down here in London, also used to be common in the wilds of Hemel Hempsted
ReplyDeleteA rough pub in Ashton u Lyne which
ReplyDeletesells John Smiths @ £1.20p a PINT
Carlsberg @ £1
Tips ?? the clientele cant even spell tip
let alone give one .
Oh did'nt some apologist blame the cost of beer for the demise of the pubs. ???£1.20P per pint??
Come out come out wherever you
Sad to see Anon back to usual incomprehensible gibberish.
ReplyDeleteHiya John Clarke
ReplyDeleteWhich bit was "gibberish"
I will avoid in future if compliance is the rule
"Sad"
Sadness is all part of Freedom of
Opinion
Cheers for now
Teetotaler
If you go to the Metropolitan in West Didsbury they just take a tip without asking, that why I will never set foot in there ever again.
ReplyDeleteWhen dinosaurs ruled the earth and I worked the odd bar as a lad, "And one for yourself" was a fairly common refrain (in Scunthorpe and it's environs), especially as the evening wore on and the patrons became better 'refreshed'.
ReplyDeleteI was finally reduced to drawing myself a pint at the start of the evening and stashing it behind the bar. This allowed me to accept the generous offers of the (large, steelworking) clientele, catch their eye and drink to them from my general purpose stashed pint, thereby satisfying their generous impulses without ending every shift pissed red white and blue...
"And your own" was common to de rigeur in Liverpool when I lived there 20 odd years ago. It still happens here, but usually only in local pubs though some Joey Holt's houses are an exception - even in the City Centre of Manchester.
ReplyDeleteI do see people still tipping even for a single drink. It is usually when the barperson is particularly attractive, though.
ReplyDeleteI've been waiting years for a blogger to bring up this subject. In fact I did wonder whether "and your own" occured outside of Liverpool! In all the pubs I drink in a 20p tip is standard from the regulars ( be it for a round or a single pint)
ReplyDeleteBen
If somebody says, one for yourself, it is pretty standard to take half a pint for yourself. This is always what I tell my staff to do. Any more than that is taking the piss, unless the customer clearly state that they are buying you a pint.
ReplyDeleteIn West Lancashire back in the eighties it meant put 5 or 10p in your tip glass. Noboby dreamt of taking the price of half a bitter.
ReplyDeleteThere's a fairly lengthy thread on this subject in "the cellar" section of Blue Moon, the Man City fan site.
ReplyDeletePersonally, in many pub visits to Manchester I've never heard "And your own" (may be the accent). The concept of a 20p or so tip on a single drink is alien down here, though occasional offers of a pint to well-known staff aren't odd.
As a barman in The Shady Oak in Hazel Grove, back in the day when it was a good pub, 10p was the standard and we split the pot at the end of the night with the glass collectors, who worked harder than all of us behind the bar. A good proportion of the regulars wouls insist you had a "proper drink" and that was generally a half to be taken on the other side of the bar on a break. Happy days. I moved south in the early 90s and gave up offering 'one for yourself' pretty quickly as they didn't know what I was on about. I still say bath and path properly though because it amuses me to confuse them.
ReplyDelete"Take your own" is a 20p tip in my favourite Liverpool Boozer - The Volunteer Canteen... and is pretty well understood judging by the number of times you'll hear it.
ReplyDelete