Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)
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First published 2005 (SND, online supplement).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
GOTH, prop.n. [Named for Gothenburg in Sweden where the system originated.] Type of pub, esp. in Lothian mining villages, where the community owned the pub and the profits were used for the common good.Sc. 1998 Edinburgh Evening News 27 May 3:
Officially called The Goth, it was built in 1911 by the Armadale Public House Society.
Despite its name, the group was dedicated to curbing excessive boozing and set up a hostelry which served coffee and food for mineworkers as an alternative to the town's pubs.
And it is still owned by the co-operative which runs The Goth Bar just yards from the clock tower.Sc. 1998 Edinburgh Evening News 23 Dec 20:
Dr Anderson's fees were far too high for most miners, so the local public house society, the Goth, bought an ambulance and paid for a district nurse to be employed.Sc. 1998 Edinburgh Evening News 23 Dec 41:
"I had nine pubs, some infamous like the Goth in Prestonpans which was something of a no-go area for the cops, ... "Sc. 1999 Herald 18 Jan 4:
Now the Dean, set up as one of hundreds of community pubs in Scotland under a Swedish idea known as the Gothenburg system, is to celebrate its centenary as the sole survivor of a movement that once flourished across industrial Scotland.
While Scotland's other "Goth" pubs have closed or been bought over by large breweries, the Dean Tavern has continued to channel all its profits back to good causes in the former mining village of Newtongrange, Midlothian.Sc. 1999 Edinburgh Evening News 19 Oct 18:
The music wafting from the pub speakers give the game away. This is a Goth pub, but instead of the Sisters of Mercy pumping out from behind the bar, there are the gentle strains of Tammy Wynette, laying her blanket on the ground. ...
These days only a handful of true Goth pubs — such as the Newtowngrange Dean Tavern — remain, continuing to thrive despite the closure of the pits and the loss of industry.w.Lth. 2000 Davie Kerr A Puckle Poems 21:
Armadale is wonderful
...Wir Goth tow'rs leanin ow'r,
its knock stuck at hauf-past fowr.Sc. 2003 Edinburgh Evening News 27 Jan :
A community council meeting heard last week how the Prestoungrange Gothenberg in Prestonpans is to be refurbished by the Baron Courts of Prestoungrange and Dolphingstone, the company owned by the Baron of Prestoungrange. ...
"It's going to be a very small brewery in the middle of the ground floor. We would produce brew twice a week and produce around 90 gallons of beer which would only be served in the Goth itself."w.Lth. 2005:
If you go to The Goth for a pint, don't expect to meet teenagers in black clothes with chains. These are working men's pubs.Sc. 2005 Scotsman 12 Feb 23:
Social — you might say very social — history is the subject of Billy Kay's slot tomorrow, as he looks at Goths: not the black-clad mopers, but a system of pubs aimed at reducing drunkenness. People's History: The Gothenburg Experiment (11.05am, Sunday, Radio Scotland) tells how a project initiated to curb alcohol abuse in the Swedish city of Gothenburg at the end of the 19th century, establishing "reformed public houses" whose profits were channelled into the community, gained favour in Scotland's mining villages. Kay visits the Dean Tavern in Newtongrange and the newly re-established Prestoungrange Gothenburg in Prestonpans, and he discovers that Goth principles are still being observed.
