Pub becomes ‘first in the UK’ to ban smoking in beer garden
https://metro.co.uk/2025/04/07/pub-becomes-first-uk-ban-smoking-beer-garden-22862600/amp/
Posted by Proper-Egg5454
Pub becomes ‘first in the UK’ to ban smoking in beer garden
https://metro.co.uk/2025/04/07/pub-becomes-first-uk-ban-smoking-beer-garden-22862600/amp/
Posted by Proper-Egg5454
35 Comments
This is still such an odd thing to me, I completely understand banning it inside as the evidence for second hand smoke being harmful indoors is undeniable, but outdoors its not nearly as bad
Just ban the beer and then you’ll get the creche you desire
If you are a gastropub and your target market is the lucrative food market, this makes sense. You don’t want the four or five regulars who drink and smoke all day who make you a steady twenty quid a day profit – when ten outdoor dining tables could make twenty quid per cover profit with many sittings of covers.
Great news!
Can drink and eat outside in the sun without smelling selfish people’s stinky smoke. Maybe less fag butts chucked on the floor too.
I mean fair enough, your place, but I can only imagine this will make normal people avoid it as being mother henning and only the worst kind of people will go. Imagine the kind of people that would specifically look for a place that doesnt allow smokers even outdoors. Now imagine a bar full of them. You’re welcome to them!
I don’t mind the free market principal of letting a pub decide this for themselves. They know their market
I do think it would be short sighted to make this compulsory legislation
is that just tobbacco smoking or can i still bring percy? percy is the name of my crack pipe
This is variable to different places, the men only workings men club down the road, this is going down like a lead balloon. The family friendly, carvery and play area franchise down the road, happy days.
I smoked for 15 years and hated the smoking ban in pubs as it started around the time i started smoking properly, in the pubs i grew up in where i couldn’t see my hands in front of my face and my eyes stung , it was finally my turn!
I haven’t smoked in over 2 years now and haven’t vaped in over a year, I’m now very glad there’s no smoking inside but I’m not sure people should be banned outside, it will stop plenty of custom in an already dying business in places. As a non smoker you can tolerate a bit of smoke wafting by every now and again or go inside where there is literally no smoke.
You can never make everyone happy all the time but can you just ban anything that isn’t healthy now?
Even when i did smoke i was all for making smoking in general illegal on the other hand just for an excuse to quit, i loved it but i didn’t want to. But for some people they love it, have no interest or intention of quitting and it is their one pleasure in life regardless of health.
I wonder if they’ll ban vaping as well as smoking? Some vapes are basically on par with smoking in terms of the smell.
Thank Christ I no longer have to breathe in that disgusting unhealthy second hand smoke while I down eight pints on a Tuesday afternoon.
I understand it, in fact being brow beaten not to smoke in the beer garden is what finally gave me the drive to quit drinking and smoking.
I can still order a pint of liver damage though right ?
Tbh, as a smoker, pubgoer and (unlike the majority of commenters ITT) someone who has actually read this article: fair play to them. For this pub, their outside space is basically an extension of their restaurant: banning smokers and vapers just makes sense here, nobody wants to dine in second hand tobacco/vape.
If the spit and sawdust dive serving no food that I frequent were to ban smoking in the dodgy alleyway out the back they call a “garden”, I’d have a different opinion.
Why would anyone want to light a stick of leaves on fire and breathe it in anyway? And why tf have we normalised doing this around other people?
Should have banned it outright decades ago. It’s fucking rank, arsedribble behaviour
I have quite literally been in one in Liverpool city centre that banned it. It’s free market.
What I don’t want to see is a mandate that ALL beer gardens ban it when that should be up to the bar. It’s not the same as the indoor one where everyone came out stinking
One of the local pubs by me has banned smoking in the beer garden for a number of years now – maybe 2 years before covid, which is why my friends no longer go there.
Hope Inn in Hythe, Kent
Sounds like I may visit and support their business, resting assured in the knowledge that the random thing my body does (illusion of suffocation) when perceiving smoke) won’t occur.
Of course the first “woke” and “WE HAVE A RIGHT TO SMOKE IF WE CHOOSE TO!!” (no, you don’t, you’re just allowed to do it on the premises unless the rules on the premises bar you from doing so) review bombs have already hit. I’ve felt at liberty to report them.
One day, the headline will be “UK bans smoking”
5 years later everyone will be saying…
“God I can’t believe how stupid people were to waste their money on smoking”
Completely fine, surprised it’s the first.
I’m an ex smoker, it’s not a choice and can feel a little shitty to be relegated to a dirty smoking spot away from everyone else…but there’s reason for it. If you’re a smoker then simply don’t go to this pub, meanwhile there are plenty of people who’d happily go due to this ban.
Ultimately it is their business so it is their choice if they want a full smoking ban.
Don’t like it, go elsewhere.
Yeah it’s their business, whatever they want to do. Getting annoyed by this is just stupid.
Their pub their rules. The free market will dictate if it’s a good decision for them.
Pubs are for communities. Public Houses.
I’m starting to actively hate this country.
Individual pubs doing this is the way forward over a blanket rule banning it. Customers can then make the choice over which pub they want to spend time in.
That sounds like a right house of fun. A regular party.
What the fuck is this country coming to? We’re a nation of mean spirited wimps if we can’t even tolerate people smoking out the back – the sort of wimps who are always whining about third hand smoke and second hand alcohol.
What’s next, if someone lights a cigarette down the street from you you get to sue them for assault? Get a fucking life!
where i am – and its obviously not like this everywhere – and i will add i fuckin hate it – beer gardens have become mostly play-areas / crèches for whipersnappers. having one multi-use space for kids to play / people to chain smoke.. genius. 1970s romanian airports and your local gastropub. one of them clearly has to go.. my money would be that it won’t be the olive munching, chablis drinking 30-something couples with two kids under 5
Stupid rule. You are outside where else you going to smoke? In the toilets?
There’s a couple of pubs by me in the posh end of town that banned smoking anywhere on their premises in or out years ago.
It’s banned in every Spoons beer garden I’ve been to so far from the first.
Not that anyone takes notice.
I think establishments should be able to implement their own policies and areas like this but equally I think if a pub is not a family pub David also allow in door smoking
Good ban it. Its a great pub, the Thai food is amazing and no-one has every enjoyed someone smoking next to them while eating.
Not true, smoking is not allowed in my locals pub garden, because it is a small garden surrounded by tall walls.
Just like with allowing dogs, people will flock to the one place that doesn’t allow this just to fucking complain.
I am glad, smoking is so invasive to everyone around you. Having somewhere you can take your family for lunch without that horrible smell and dangerous fumes is a dream
Where does vaping fit in? I find vaping more irritating coz it’s constant, cigarettes only last 5min
I’m a smoker and I hate smoking at the table when I”m outside, I always get up and walk over to another area. I will inevitably blow smoke in someone’s face and even if they smoke to its not pleasant. It’s like being at a houseparty and they tell you to smoke inside, No, bitch I wanna go outside. This is gross