Late licencing
300 wordsHappy Friday went large on Friday, with eight of us convening for a smashing meal in one of the cosy alcoves at the Thai Elephant. With that done, we set about finding out how it felt to be allowed to be in pubs slightly later than last week.
Since we were up that end of town anyway, we had one drink in the Woodland Tavern, leaving just after 11. Next stop, because we were close, and I like it, was the Star and Garter. We weren’t sure how this would work. Could we really breeze into a pub after 11, without having to plead with bouncers or anything like that?
It turned out, you just walk in, get a round of drinks, sit down and chat for two hours. At one o’clock — closing time — it was clear that about half of the customers had already left of their own accord. Indeed, we left after last orders, but before anyone asked us to go.
On the way back home, past the Well and the Jug, the chippy, Sakaraya kebabs and Mama’s Pizza, we were struck by how quiet it was compared to our normal 12:15 walk from the Jug.
I’ve always thought that later, more flexible opening hours would lead to more civilised night-time streets, but I also believed it would take months or years to settle down from an initial period of chaos. Although I’m not at Star and Garter often enough to know how this compared to previous Friday nights, and Friday was cold enough to keep many people at home, this is all very promising.
For balance, I must link to some Warwick Uni blogger, who says that Leamington was very rowdy indeed on Saturday at 1am.
The Independent on Sunday found that in most parts of Britain, things went well.