Westminster Council have been discussing proposals for pubs to only permit customers to be able to drink whilst seated and to make table service compulsory.

This isn’t a description of a pub as I know it.  It is more like a bizarre vision of some kind of Speakeasy culture, where drinking is only permissible under the most restricted conditions.

Pubs are the lifeblood of London culture.  Long-summer-night crowds spilling out onto the pavement, standing, sociably drinking outside of Fitzrovia taverns should be proudly preserved as a national monument of cultural importance rather than something to be curtailed and castigated.

Standing, talking at the bar; ordering drinks at the bar: these are fundamental aspects of the national character.

I ask, Westminster councillors, where do you drink?  Rather than corral and subjugate pub-goers, you should be celebrating your supreme good fortune to be working within staggering distance of some of the most historical celebrated pubs in the world.

Embrace the experience; don’t legislate against it.

© Beery Sue

Beery Sue does a whole lot more than just stand in her local pub.

Beery Sue is author of the book One for the Road.