Young Brunette Girl Strips Her Purple Dress At The Bar With Stools In The Old Abandoned Pub

The word "bar" in this context was already in use by 1592 at the latest, as the dramatist Robert Greene referred to one in his A Noteable Discovery of Coosnage. However, it has been suggested that the method of serving from a counter was invented by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the great Victorian engineer, as a means of more quickly serving the sudden rush of customers caused by passenger trains arriving at the refreshment rooms at Swindon railway station while the Great Western Railway trains changed locomotives. It has also been claimed that the first bar to serve alcohol was installed at the Great Western Hotel on Paddington station, London.
Counters for serving other types of food and drink may also be called bars. Examples include snack bars, sushi bars, juice bars, salad bars, and sundae bars.