Westminster council proposes ban on standing in Soho pubs
You can't run a world-famous nightlife district with a village-hall mindset. London's hospitality and nightlife support jobs, culture and growth. New powers for City Hall will help ensure decisions consider the wider benefits for our city.
Jon27The utter stupidity of the Tories who run Westminster Council.
Bettina Struff #Woke #FBPE #FBPR #NHS #RejoinEU11Agreed, but can you change the ULEZ charging switchover to 3am please? If I drive into London for an evening out, unless I can get out of the zone before midnight I have to pay twice for one visit! If you change the switchover to 3am I might actually start visiting London again. @london.gov.uk
Grey Area3Well done London needs nightlife
Colin1I don’t drink anymore but even I can’t deny that one of the great London pastimes is flowing onto the streets in soho. If you’re lucky enough to live there, suck it up.
Matt Hollingsworth8Banning vertical drinking will only further devastate pub culture, which has already been devastated in the UK.
Alix Mortimer4Get them Sadiq! Unbelievable decision.
Robin Potter2This is nuts Soho home to many legendary pubs - star and garter, blue posts, coach and horses, old coffee house to name a few Would be a death knell
Josh Ryan2From my POV, WCC needs an overhaul. Every decision has been overly cautious and economically depressing.
Absolutely nuts proposal from Westminster council. The GLA should take over licensing for Soho. It is for everyone, not just the lucky few who live there (and seem to hate it) www.theguardian.com/business/202...
Josiah Mortimer24(I say this as a non-Londoner but who has had many a "vertical" beverage in Soho)
Dr Caz 🌳🔶🇪🇺 🇺🇦10“Anti-growth”? More importantly, this also seems anti-fun, and something that could potentially destroy part of what makes us British? Ordering at the bar and standing for a pint is part of what I think people call British Culture, no?
lizziec.bsky.social10Didn’t they put tables / chairs outside during the lockdown period where people sat on the pavement? It was much nicer. Didn’t they then stop this.
AnthonyF2724I thought Tory councils were business minded. It sounds to me as though they have some "Reform/Restore" Tories on this council?
Paul Moreau3Instead of 'similar entertainment' they simply should have said 'or any other type of fun'
ChippyGirl2music.youtube.com/watch?v=MZuk... Just because it's great!
Anandamide28For the 5,000th time, if you want to live somewhere quiet then DON'T BUY A FLAT IN FUCKING SOHO.
𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝔾𝕣𝕖𝕒𝕥 𝕎𝕖𝕟𝕕𝕥6that is some dumb azz sh*t, trying to ban "vertical drinking" I have drank a lot and don't ever remember doing it horizontal
Conor Sewell4100%. Soho should be treated and administered like the essential cultural and social site it is, not like a NIMBY paradise.
Josh3This will kill pubs in Soho, which is why they want it. The Mayor needs to take over Soho and Oxford Street - it's too important to London for these people to control it
LozRex2And on this weeks episode of; Westminster Council Determined to Eliminate Any and All Remaining Nightlife in London…
Pete Suters2Interesting to note that Westminster Council is run by the Tories - the so-called party of business. It was never about protecting business. Their entire purpose is to protect privilege and push the rest of us away from their exclusive enclaves.
Tuffy2What did you think devolution meant? Filled potholes? better community spaces? Losers
I think this is a great shout from Westminster council and I agree that drinking standing up is bad, which is why we should re-predestrianise all of Soho every night and cover it in terraces like we did in 2020/2021 x www.theguardian.com/business/202...
Tom Hill23Whenever I read about Westminster Council, I always get the vibe that they just wish that 'the gays' would go elsewhere.
Kevin Marks14Exactly. They can have sitting down or cars, not both.
fredfelt.bsky.social12My guess is that Westminster council are comprised of and / or exclusively working for the interests of aging, wealthy, residents of Soho. So, they are more interested making space for cars, and not at all interested in people or local businesses that depend on visitors.
elrondcupboard.bsky.social10You’ll never believe what Westminster council also hate
Johnathan Collins9I’d like pedestrianisation and be able to stand up
Elizabeth Blunt1I always thought Soho was more about horizontal drinking.
As ever, obsessed by the euphemism of “Vertical Drinking”. “How can we make standing up, having a pint with your friends, sound bad?” www.theguardian.com/business/202...
Jack Tindale44Obsessed by what this bloke’s CV must look like. “Michael Kill has been a pub landlord, a DJ, an officer in the Irish Guards, a whisky distiller, a prostitute, the Governor of the Bank of England, a minicab driver, a tattooist, a kebab shop manager, and the Culture Secretary.”
Bleddyn Bowen27Because horizontal drinking is far better
Andrew Robertson11Alternative headline “council wants pubs closed down”.
Tom Haddon9Not sure if it happened in England, but we had loads of COVID era rules about vertical drinking in pubs in Wales. Brings back memories. What they are saying is 'restaurants ok , pubs bad, clubs...christ'
timoconnorbl.bsky.social7To which the answer is: be over 40. Standing in shouty barn pubs is enormous fun, and I did it, and I was *good* at it. But it is a young man’s game, and after 40, the seats and high stools of the quiet Ould Fella Pub call to your knees and your back and say: come, join us, have peace and rest..
Chris Terry-Enescu4Vertical drinking makes sense to me. Drink goes down easier than if you're lying down
Ben Ansell24Maybe Kemi Badenoch could turn her focus on the remaining Conservative councillors in the country from ex-neonazis in Somerset to her colleagues in Westminster who plan on banning a centuries old tradition.
John C18We are careening towards a place where it is easier to have a night out in Streatham than Soho and that's both insane than hilarious
Cethan Leahy13Good luck banning Londoners from their most beloved activity - queuing.
Duncan Robinson13Still vertical if sat down imo
James Butler11I've had nights that could be described as ending up at 'horizontal drinking', but they're not generally the kind medical authorities or the civic-minded encourage.
Chris Dillow11As I wrote, the political elite thinks its function is to remove joy from life. chrisdillow.substack.com/p/the-joyles...
Left Outside10Furthermore, Westminster Council Delenda Est.
VictorianLondon8standing up in pubs is being cited as quintessential British tradition. however, there were centuries of ferrying drink to tables until the Georgians (yes, the Georgians) invented beer pumps and the gin palace. TAKE THE LONG VIEW, GUYS.* (*no-one needs to take the long view)
Phil Burton-Cartledge8This to me smacks of an officer having a bee in their bonnet about such things and a council whose members lack the basic nous to spot it and say no.
Dr Vanessa8"vertical drinking" is an industry term refering to a design of venue which is socially engineered to encourage faster (& thus more) drinking. it's not some council nimby conspiracy, it's a thing. Might be misused in this case but it's a real technical term invented by the businesses in question
Westminster Council have always been terrible on this. The pubs in Westminster itself are awful because there's no new licenses and no competition. Great for the owners of said awful pubs, good for residents who don't go out in Westminster, bad for everyone else.
John Springford27It gets at the heart of the localism problem, as does this story. Fiscal devolution can strengthen incentives to develop. But too much power in too small an area, and resident-voter interests outweigh those of companies, workers, consumers who could also use the space. www.ft.com/content/6fe7...
James Austin6I just dont understand why youd live in Soho if you dont want to live in a nightspot
Bill Heywood2The intention of the Westminster policy is clearly to kill the pub trade A pub = ordering at the bar and being able to stand up inside or out I hope Sadiq Khan can override this nonsense If you choose to live in an area with pubs and restaurants, then you accept what that comes with
Dear angry people, if you’re looking for someone to denounce for DESTROYING OUR CULTURE and RUINING OUR HERITAGE, try Westminster Council. www.theguardian.com/business/202...
leemurg.bsky.social1Unbelievable. Was in Soho yesterday & people drinking outside pubs is one of the best things about it that makes London so vibrant and a great place to be.
Steve Yates1They are such petty arseholes.
Lejanaysola 🍉1I know, right? What is more British than standing at the pub, having a drink with your mates? "Vertical drinking" indeed.
Central London is now one of the most joyless places for a night out. Hardly any independent venues left amidst a sea of soulless plastic menu chains, mission impossible to get a drink or bite to eat after 10.30pm, & everything costs a flipping fortune. The Soho Society want to kill it off entirely
LiLBaz4I work in the west end about once a month on a Friday night until about 10/10.30pm & usually want a beer or two [ahem] after & it's absolutely fucking grim
Only Valencia CF fan on bluesky1Central London is so dead. If you want a fun night out you go to zone 2,3,4 boroughs
Kev1It's that bloody London, Baz. Get up North - Proper beer, proper pubs and proper folk 🍻😂
FWIW, Westminster Council completely denies that the Guardian story is true and is apparently furious that the paper did not include the part of the quote they were given which specifically says it isn't true. The full quote is here.
Leftback6"We're not banning it, we want pubs to manage numbers themselves to limit outside drinking" is about as much a non-denial as you get. Also I salute the portrait in courage that involved extending the licence of a McDonalds.
Mark O’Neill 🐻4"The things we wrote down have been taken out of context"
darcyswickham.bsky.social1Hmm, doesn’t deny the plan to limit to table service and make pubs restrict standing and drinking. The Maccy’s thing is a weird thing to promote as it’s not relevant to the pub licenses
Left Outside1This is what you call in the biz "a lie"
Left Outside1Don't believe them. Rare moment where I back the guardian's accuracy over non-denial from the council fun police.
This is like a council policy version of moving into a flat opposite a nightclub and then complaining about the noise. www.theguardian.com/business/202...
Graeme Swanson7And that’s putting aside how enraging the term “vertical drinking” is.
Steve B2Oi! You! Stop sitting down to drink. Horizontal drinking only.
elio1"Wants to ban standing" is an insane combination of words. Besides "vertical drinking", I assume in London people also step outside to smoke??
