I was in Oxford last week and called into the Bear Inn for dinner. It's a tiny place, and you pretty much have to share tables with strangers. There was one other lone person at the time I got there, who was reading in a corner but at a much bigger table than he needed. I asked if the spot opposite was free, he said of course, and we sat there reading our books and drinking our pints in companionable silence until he went home. It was really quite pleasant, but definitely provoked by there being nowhere else in the place to sit.