I stand to defend vertical drinking. Is a pub that doesnât allow it a real pub at all? | Simon Jenkins
The time-honoured tradition of standing up with a drink, gossiping and putting the world to rights is under threat. If councillors ban it, weâll all
The time-honoured tradition of standing up with a drink, gossiping and putting the world to rights is under threat. If councillors ban it, weâll all lose out It is unbelievable: unconscionable. Westminster Council is moving against âvertical drinkingâ in pubs, starting with Soho.
It claims drinking standing up is noisy and disruptive. It makes pubs, the council says, boisterous places where customers crowd round bars, get drunk and become pains in the neck in the street outside.
Westminsterâs new draft licences would require pubs to be only for seating, to have âtable service in place of open bar spaceâ. Pub users should, presumably, sit down, shut up and wait to be served, like decent Westminster people who use wine bars.
Simon Jenkins is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
The BriefWire