United, endearing ladies sat in a south London pub discussing the (Hop-Picking) working holidays taken by Londoners from the 1500s until the 1960s. Thousands of working-class families from East and South-East London made their way to Kent each summer to harvest hops for beer production. Whilst out in Southwark for @PubHistoryTours, we were discussing this tradition and looking at some of the surviving buildings that remind us of those trips. Buildings like the old Hop Factor buildings at 67 Borough High Street, which has a very decorative frontage. Or the huge Hop Exchange at No. 24 Southwark Street in Borough Although it was hard physical labour, the annual journey was seen as a much-needed summer holiday away from crowded city slums. This clip from the 'Thames TV' documentary 'We was all one' (First shown 1972) is also an insight into the importance of pubs and their vital place within the community. @Britains___Pubs are more than just buildings. They're part of who and what we are. Women like this were the tough yet loving people who made and supported the men of Britain. I can hear my beautiful grandmother within them, and it makes me yearn for a return to a more united society. Unfair living conditions were imposed upon the majority of our ancestors. But they maintained cheery strength thanks to the unity and hope among them. It feels that nowadays, despite having more, the general public feels less happy and less unified due to a distinct lack of purpose, togetherness, and identity. Though I can not be sure, accounts suggest that the ladies (often referred to as the "Marigold Girls") were sat in 'The Hand and Marigold', a historic pub located in Bermondsey, South East London. (244 Bermondsey St, London SE1 3UH). Nowadays, pubs are so expensive, exclusionary, or few in number that our older generations are expected to sit alone and wait out their days. What we need is a grand return to a unified population without the uneccesserily harsh conditions imposed by the state.