After the virus era, pubs will be very different - with social distancing mandatory, and no waiting for service at the bar.

Table service will be the only option - as will payment by card. And it's likely that the old 'snug' will return to common usage - as well as partitioning.

Wetherspoons already ban sitting at the bar - and have an app which allows you to order and pay for food and drink, at your table.

Similar systems will be everywhere - and the spacious outlet will adjust more easily to the new modus operandi, as will those with beer gardens.


Really - the famous British boozer will have to become more like the bars in other European countries.

Customers will sit at a table - and wait to be served - as it's the only way to make distancing work.


Wetherspoons (our biggest pub chain - nearly 1,000 pubs/hotels) have to be commended for their forward thinking.

As well as the no barstools at the counter rule - and the order app - they banned smoking before it was illegal.

Goodbye to pubs.

Seems like so much hassle and hardwork just to get a bloody drink, even the staff will be over stressed and overwhelmed.

Remember apps and internet connection goes down in some areas, so it goes down then what ?

There are shops near that have difficulty with card payments, so its quicker just to use cash in those shops.

I want to know what's happening with theatres - we can't self isolate forever.

Things should carry on, if you want to go out and do "non essential shopping" be it, if you want to be a hermit then that's up to you also.

Far too optimistic. Most pubs, cafes and restaurants will cease trading. Theatres too.

Prophet of Doom wrote:
Far too optimistic. Most pubs, cafes and restaurants will cease trading. Theatres too.

Nice way to convert old establishments to affordable flats.

Green Man wrote:
Prophet of Doom wrote:
Far too optimistic. Most pubs, cafes and restaurants will cease trading. Theatres too.

Nice way to convert old establishments to affordable flats.

Anyone who does that needs shooting.

Honey wrote:
Green Man wrote:
Prophet of Doom wrote:
Far too optimistic. Most pubs, cafes and restaurants will cease trading. Theatres too.

Nice way to convert old establishments to affordable flats.

Anyone who does that needs shooting.

If there's no capital or need for them, why not use them to convert them to housing ?

If you don't use them you lose them. The high street is on its last legs and recession is looming. I can't see what else can be done.

I've always hated people hanging around the bar drinking. They just get in the way when you're trying to make an order. The Wetherspoons app will help, but it doesn't deal with those difficult menu altering customers who like to divert from the menu. I think the government are going to have to relax the social distancing measures when the death rates go down. People will not go to pubs if is going to be such a ballache and not an enjoyable experience.

Changes in public house routines will be numerous, with buffets and salt/pepper shakers etc. - made redundant.

Already Wetherspoons don't allow music/jukeboxes, pool/darts, barstools and TV's (although they exist for Cup Finals, and similar).


Not least because profit margins are considerably higher for food, than drink - the typical pub will attain a more restaurantlike structure.

Like existing smoking areas, sport will be shown in a separate area - set up to ensure distancing, with appropriate barriers/partitions.


Sadly the small old pub, with nooks and crannies, is doomed - as space becomes paramount, to cater for customers who require more individual cubic inches.

Much of what's to come already exists in cities in continental Europe, and in the US - where a customer can often see several sports/TV screens from his seat.

Barney wrote:
Changes in public house routines will be numerous, with buffets and salt/pepper shakers etc. - made redundant.

Already Wetherspoons don't allow music/jukeboxes, pool/darts, barstools and TV's (although they exist for Cup Finals, and similar).


Not least because profit margins are considerably higher for food, than drink - the typical pub will attain a more restaurantlike structure.

Like existing smoking areas, sport will be shown in a separate area - set up to ensure distancing, with appropriate barriers/partitions.


Sadly the small old pub, with nooks and crannies, is doomed - as space becomes paramount, to cater for customers who require more individual cubic inches.

Much of what's to come already exists in cities in continental Europe, and in the US - where a customer can often see several sports/TV screens from his seat.





Or just carry on as normal, learn to live with Covid 19. People are getting too paranoid. The social distancing will just bring out the worst of people.

happening the world over as Oz pubs go "gastro" and bistro

Prophet of Doom wrote:
Far too optimistic. Most pubs, cafes and restaurants will cease trading. Theatres too.

A lot of them didn't recover since the plandemic and closed for good. There was a cosy little pub on the outskirts of Basingstoke, it had everything even a decent beer garden. The landlord couldn't keep up with the rates nor could he reduce prices. Even Weatherspoons are closing even in congested towns.

I might be in the minority but I don't enjoy restaurants, but only on holidays. I prefer my partners cooking, and I tell her that all the time.

A lot of theatre's closed for good, even if they haven't, ticket prices have gone through the roof. The Eagles in Manchester is only fraction more expensive than the tribute Eagles bands.

Wetherspoons are culling the bad performing pubs, and opening new ones - like their new multimillion outlets in Greenwich, Wolverhampton and Euston.

The British pub industry is alive and well, but smaller and refined. Those who adapt to changing tastes will survive; the back street boozer is gone.

Paul Seven wrote:
Wetherspoons are culling the bad performing pubs, and opening new ones - like their new multimillion outlets in Greenwich, Wolverhampton and Euston.

The British pub industry is alive and well, but smaller and refined. Those who adapt to changing tastes will survive; the back street boozer is gone.

I disagree that Weatherspoons is somehow "refined". To me it is souless sad functional. While such venues will continue to sell burgers and drinks on the cheap, the great English pub at the heart of local communities is a dying thing in cities. In pretty rural villages they continue - I hope for many years to come.

Wyot wrote:
Paul Seven wrote:
Wetherspoons are culling the bad performing pubs, and opening new ones - like their new multimillion outlets in Greenwich, Wolverhampton and Euston.

The British pub industry is alive and well, but smaller and refined. Those who adapt to changing tastes will survive; the back street boozer is gone.

I disagree that Weatherspoons is somehow "refined". To me it is souless sad functional. While such venues will continue to sell burgers and drinks on the cheap, the great English pub at the heart of local communities is a dying thing in cities. In pretty rural villages they continue - I hope for many years to come.


The pubs in garrisons and council estates are doing well. The village pubs are on their knees and despite selling hot food. The biker pubs do well especially at weekends. I hate Spoons and Tim Martin, I have a contact who works with him and his opinions match mine. I have phased out drinking apart from the odd glass at wine but these tend to be home.

If the back street boozer are gone does it mean the pub trade is in jeopardy? It can't be both ways Barn.

Not everyone's cup of tea, Wetherspoons have become the UK's most successful pub group ever, with over 800 outlets and 40,000 staff. All put together in just over 40 years.

Always in town/city centres, they've replaced the social/workingmens clubs as the epicentre of many communities. Often inhabitanting an unwanted historic building.

Such as The Royal Opera House in Tunbridge Wells. Disused cinemas, banks, court houses etc. - have also been given a new lease of life, and communities a focal point.

Paul Seven wrote:
Not everyone's cup of tea, Wetherspoons have become the UK's most successful pub group ever, with over 800 outlets and 40,000 staff. All put together in just over 40 years.

Always in town/city centres, they've replaced the social/workingmens clubs as the epicentre of many communities. Often inhabitanting an unwanted historic building.

Such as The Royal Opera House in Tunbridge Wells. Disused cinemas, banks, court houses etc. - have also been given a new lease of life, and communities a focal point.


Give it time they will soon be flats. Weatherspoons food is basically microwave food and flat beer. The wine is too acidic also.

Paul Seven wrote:
Not everyone's cup of tea, Wetherspoons have become the UK's most successful pub group ever, with over 800 outlets and 40,000 staff. All put together in just over 40 years.

Always in town/city centres, they've replaced the social/workingmens clubs as the epicentre of many communities. Often inhabitanting an unwanted historic building.

Such as The Royal Opera House in Tunbridge Wells. Disused cinemas, banks, court houses etc. - have also been given a new lease of life, and communities a focal point.

They are handy for a quick pie and chips, but I would hardly call them the epicentre of the community, Barney.
A village pub might fulfil that role, if you can find one?

Honey wrote:
Paul Seven wrote:
Not everyone's cup of tea, Wetherspoons have become the UK's most successful pub group ever, with over 800 outlets and 40,000 staff. All put together in just over 40 years.

Always in town/city centres, they've replaced the social/workingmens clubs as the epicentre of many communities. Often inhabitanting an unwanted historic building.

Such as The Royal Opera House in Tunbridge Wells. Disused cinemas, banks, court houses etc. - have also been given a new lease of life, and communities a focal point.

They are handy for a quick pie and chips, but I would hardly call them the epicentre of the community, Barney.
A village pub might fulfil that role, if you can find one?

I still hear them being referred as "Chav Central".

I am sure Honey homemade and pie and chips are way more delicious.

Poole is losing their Spoons.

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