Gothenburg Public Houses

The Gothenburg or Trust Public House movement originated as an attempt to control the consumption of alcohol in the Swedish city of Gothenburg in the early 19th century. In 1855 a law was passed in Sweden making distillation of spirits at home illegal and the authorities in Gothenburg decided to award the retail spirits licences to a single company run as a trust. This trust aimed to control pubs and off licences in a way which would not encourage excessive consumption of spirits. 5% of the profit of the trusts went to the shareholders with the remainder being used to benefit the local community. The Gothenburg system quickly spread. In Scotland, the system was adopted mainly in mining communities of Fife and the Lothians.

In 1901,Joseph Rowntree described two Gothenburg public houses in Hill of Beath and Kelty