Calling time English, American, and Dutch styles

Just after the sun kissed goodbye over the rim of the world, nobody called time or sounded taps, so we carried on drinking beer.

The consumption of alcohol itself, is not considered a "licensable activity" under the new Licensing Act. Therefore "drinking-up time" (DUT) has no legal meaning and has disappeared. For many years ten minutes (and later extended to twenty minutes) was the legal dispensation which allowed the consumption of alcohol to continue after the official closing time, which in recent times meant that customers could still drink what they had already bought until 23:20 on weekdays, subject to the licensee's discretion. After that time consumption had to also stop.

With the end of standard permitted hours, this concession became irrelevant and there is no mention of DUT in the 2003 Act. Instead, applicants for premises licences can specify the maximum period (their "Opening Hours") for which they wish to allow their customers to stay after the time at which the sale of alcohol ends ("the terminal hour") within their Operating Schedule. In practice, many licensees simply do not specify opening hours at all, which allows an unspecified drinking up time, determined only by the licensee's discretion. In contrast, some licensees call for "last orders" twenty minutes (or more) before the end of the opening hours specified on their premises' licence.

Well, we hope that's as clear as the beer. Isn't the legal mind a thing of wonder? Everything about alcohol is legislated or circumscribed by regulation, except the actual drinking. As the evening progressed, it began to develop into something of a tattoo, but the kind without ink. When girls started dancing on tables we made our excuses and left, as reporters on the now defunct and unlamented 'News of the World' used to say; it was not any easy thing to say while lying through their teeth.

The term dates from around 1600 during the Thirty Years' War in the Low Countries (Belgium and the Netherlands). The Dutch fortresses were garrisoned with mercenary troops that were under federal command since 1594. The Dutch States Army had become a federal army, consisting mostly of Scottish, English, German and Swiss mercenaries, but commanded by a Dutch officer corps. Drummers from the garrison were sent out into the towns at 21:30 hrs (9:30PM) each evening to inform the soldiers that it was time to return to barracks. The process was known as doe den tap toe (Dutch for "turn off the tap"), an instruction to innkeepers to stop serving beer and send the soldiers home for the night. The drummers continued to play until the curfew at 22:00 hrs (10:00PM). Tattoo, earlier tap-too and taptoo, are alterations of the Dutch words tap toe which have the same meaning.

'Cheers!' as they say in England. 'Proost!' as they say in Netherlands. 'That'll be five bucks!' as they say in America.