Many Londoners could no more live without their 'local' than they could forgo their daily dinner. The pub, or public house, to give it its full title is ingrained in the British psyche as a social center, bolt -hole and second home. Pub culture is still male-dominated, revolving around pints, pool, darts, and sports, but mass decoration by major breweries (which own most pubs) in the late '80s transformed so many ancient smoke-and spittle-stained dives into fantasy Edwardian drawing rooms that (on the whole) they feel more congenial to women than ever before. This decade, the fashion has been for modernity, with cocktail lists, distressed paintwork, bare floorboards, and chrome fittings, but the result is similar - these are pubs, but not as we know them.