Drinkers sup on art nights
LANDLORDS are turning the pub industry around by offering yoga, art classes and craft beers at their boozers.
Figures released this week showed locals have enjoyed an upturn in takings, with a 4% sales rise over the past year. The surprise boost comes after years of decline in the pub industry.
But pub owners have had to change tack to bring in extra takings.
As well as quizzes and pub grub, some boozers have brought in activities such as yoga nights, right, to pull in crowds. Katie Duffy, joint landlord with brother Michael at the Chancery in Beckenham, south-east London, reckons the activities, listed left, have gone down well. Katie, 30, said: “It’s all the different things we’ve brought in. We have yoga nights upstairs and we have just been approached by an artist to have art lessons upstairs.
“It brings in people who might otherwise not have come out for a few drinks.”
The number of pubs closing last year went down from one in 10 to one in 30.
Those statistics are welcome in areas such as Kent, where more than 1,600 watering holes have been lost in recent years, according to the Lost Pub Project. In Gravesend, some landlords have turned to more traditional ideas such as live sport to boost their numbers.
Sam Hyde, 26, at The Goose, said they are expecting a big summer thanks to the World Cup in Russia.
Meanwhile landlord Rob McMillan says his success at the nearby
Jolly Drayman is partly thanks to returning to traditional fares.
He added: “It’s a bloody shame so many pubs have gone under but we’re nearing the point where we can’t lose any more.” CARLISLE in Cumbria has the cheapest beer in Britain, according to the Money Guru guide.
In the south, drinkers in Chelmsford, Essex, can get their favourite pint for half the price it costs in London, which is the dearest pint around at £5.19.