“From the lease’s point of view”: The role of tied leases in shaping the UK pub sector

Much like their residential counterparts, commercial leases have a reputation problem. Although often derided as painfully dull and mundane documents, residential leases have begun to be interrogated by socio-legal scholarship with renewed interest. This paper continues this line of work in the commercial context through a detailed examination of a widespread form of leasehold in the pub sector: the “tied lease”. Drawing on interviews with publicans and archival research, I argue that the lease is a decisive factor in determining the balance of power between publicans and pub-owning companies and shapes the physical environment of pubs in the UK. My broader agenda is to argue that socio-legal scholars’ renewed interest in leases should not be confined to the residential context: commercial leases warrant far greater socio-legal scholarly attention.