The easyest and cheapest thing to do would be to contact a brewery such as tennents or scottish and newcastle and lease one.

You have contact a brewery. do a google search on brewerys and you should be able to apply on line.

Also, make sure its in a good location, for example if your in a city with a university in it, set up your business a reasonable distance from it to get the students in, but not too far onto campus to put off the older locals. You will get a good balance of customers all year!

buy one

hotel and caterer magazine has a section with properties – pubs b&bs and that for sale.

look for commercial property agents in your local area or the area you want the pub in.

once ya get one get your licence staff and stock and away you go, unless it needs a bit of a facelift first

You need qualifications in managing a pub, you need to be licensed to sell alcohol, then you either need to buy a pub, or get a job managing one.

think carefully, there is a recession, pubs are emptying, take a walk around any town and you will see most pubs are empty during the week days, and you will have to be'' the place to go '' for it to be busy at the weekends to.the smoking ban has also had an effect on the trade to, pubs are closing down every day now, try pub management first to get a taste of the whole picture before you waste good money, dont try to own or lease before you are experienced, i worked for courage brewrey 20 years ago now, i got out when it went to all day opening, yes it was that long ago, i ran a bikers pub, it worked for me because bikers dont intimidate me as i am one, and because nobody else wants them/us in there pubs i had the lot in mine so i was always busy unless there was an event on somewhere that they all rode out to.
if you do go for it still, just find the gap in the market and be different, you wont have to share your customers with somebody doing the same thing then and your profits will be greater

Allot of money.Buying a pub is like 3 times the price of an average house in u.k

Try buying a lease of a pub first and working at that. But really a Business minded person would be better dealing with it. GCSE's don't matter but you will need a personal alcohol license and a premises license for the pub itself. Then there is pub watch meetings to attend, deliveries, staff etc. Its hard work!

It is a bad time to buy a pub if you are relying on the the sale of alcohol alone. I believe that a good pub that provides excellent food at a reasonable price can still make money. You need plenty of capital to buy and set up a pub and be careful if you are renting one from a brewery. Pubs are closing daily.

1. You need to get an alchohol license to sell off and on the premises – pretty straightforward, there are quite a few courses you can go on – it'll only take a matter of weeks.

2. Don't 'BUY' a pub – because you'll be buying the freehold of the building as well and it's very expensive.
'LEASE' a pub, this can be done very cheaply/

3. Check out this website http://www.fleurets.com they sell/lease pubs.

4. Go for a pub with a good food trade as well, if you go for a 'wet' only pub (most of the sales come from drinks) then you will struggle to attract new customer and your margins will be lower.

Edit.
GOOD pubs aren't closing daily.
As a long time pub goer myself, I have seen dozens of pubs almost go to the wall because they were managed by miserable sods who has no idea what a pub is all about, and then a new energetic landlord comes in with some good ideas, decorates the place, starts doing good food, introduces quiz nights, introduces Karaoke, gets live singers in, gets sky in for the football and before long, you've got a packed pub most nights of the week.

Get to know your regulars, find out their names, treat them like royalty, remember the beer they drink and you won't go wrong.