Licensing Act 1904 Explained

The Licensing Act of 1904 was a controversial Act of the British Parliament regulating the closure of public houses (pubs) in England and Wales. It was introduced by the Home Secretary, supported by Prime Minister Arthur Balfour. and passed by his Conservative Party.^{[1] [2]}

The issue helped the Liberal Party win the 1906 United Kingdom general election by a landslide.^[3] The Licensing Act of 1904 aimed to reduce the number of pubs. It proposed to compensate brewers for the cancellation of their licence, through a fund the brewers themselves would have to pay into.^[4] This led many Nonconformists who adhered to temperance to denounce it as a "brewers' bill". Meanwhile, the brewers themselves were generally dissatisfied, and they let their customers know.^[5]

See also

• Alcohol licensing laws of the United Kingdom
• Index of drinking establishment–related articles
• Pub

Notes

1. Ruddock F. Mackay, Balfour: Intellectual Statesman (Oxford University Press, 1985), pp. 220–221 online.
2. Paul Jennings, "Liquor licensing and the local historian: the 1904 Licensing Act and its administration", The Local Historian, 39 (2009), pp.24–37.
3. A. K. Russell, Liberal Landslide: The General Election of 1906 (1973), pp.11–12, 80–88.
4. Norman Lowe, Mastering Modern British History (3rd ed. 1998), pp.267–268.
5. Paul Jennings, " 'Grasping a Nettle': The 1904 Licensing Act" in Biographies of Drink ed by Mark Hailwood and Deborah Toner (2015), pp.30–48.

Further reading

• Jennings, Paul. " 'Grasping a Nettle': The 1904 Licensing Act" in Biographies of Drink ed by Mark Hailwood and Deborah Toner (2015) pp. 30–48; online
• Jennings, Paul. "Liquor licensing and the local historian: the 1904 Licensing Act and its administration", The Local Historian, 39 (2009), pp.24–37.
• Jennings, Paul. A History of Drink and the English, 1500-2000 (Routledge, 2016).
• Jennings, Paul. The local: A history of the English pub (The History Press, 2021).
• Nicholls, James. The politics of alcohol: A history of the drink question in England. (Manchester University Press, 2013). pp 142–151.
• Yeomans, Henry. Alcohol and moral regulation: Public attitudes, spirited measures and Victorian hangovers (Bristol University Press, 2014) online
• Yokoe, Ryosuke. "Alcohol and politics in twentieth-century Britain." The Historical Journal 62.1 (2019): 267–287. online

Primary sources

• The Annual Register 1904 (Longmans, Green, 1905)
• Transcripts of British licensing laws 1552-1904

External links

• Ed Garman, "The Licensing Acts of 1904 and 1910 and their effects in Salisbury" The Pub History Society