3mo ago

Pubs in England and Wales allowed to stay open later for VE Day anniversary

www.theguardian.com

5 comments

The government will allow pubs in England and Wales to close at 1am on 9 May to allow drinkers to continue celebrating into the early hours.
Wait...pubs over all of England and Wales can't stay open until 1 normally?
kagis
Hmmm.
Apparently, pubs in the UK typically stop serving alcohol earlier than in the US. TIL.
Apparently the standard deadline is 11 PM, but licenses can be granted that run longer:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcohol_licensing_laws_of_the_United_Kingdom
Until the 2003 Act came into force on 24 November 2005,[27] permitted hours were a standard legal constraint: for example, serving alcohol after 23:00 meant that a licensing extension had to exist—either permanent (as for nightclubs, for example), or by special application from the licensee concerned for a particular occasion. There was also a customary general derogation permitting a modest extension on particular dates, such as New Year's Eve and some other Public Holidays. Licensees did not need to apply for these and could take advantage of them if they wished without any formality. Now, permitted hours are theoretically continuous: it is possible for a premises licence to be held which allows 24-hour opening, and indeed some do exist.
Most licensed premises do not go this far, but many applied for licences in 2005 that allowed them longer opening hours than before. However, as in the past, there is no obligation for licensees to use all the time permitted to them. Premises that still close (for commercial reasons) at 23:00 during most of the week may well have licences permitting them to remain open longer, perhaps for several hours. Staying open after 23:00 on the spur of the moment is therefore legal at such premises if the licensee decides to do so. The service of alcohol must still cease when the licence closing time arrives. Only the holder of the comparatively rare true "24-hour" licence has complete freedom in this respect.
https://pos.toasttab.com/blog/on-the-line/last-call-for-alcohol-by-state
According to this, the earliest average last call time in the US is in Georgia, at 11:45 PM.
Most states are 1 AM or 2 AM.
Alaska runs until 5 AM.
- Most UK's towns are density populated. Pubs are next to residential buildings typically.
  Living next to a pub sucks.
- In case you want know more about British pubs and why the trend is not to go to the pub and why they're closing down look here.
  
  That says that there is less pub-going recently. And I do see some articles saying that many pubs aren't using up their allotted time because traffic has fallen off. So that may be an effect in addition to this.
  This one, though, describes the legal mandates as a much-longer-running phenomenon, legislation dating all the way back to World War I:
  https://londonlhr.online/why-do-london-pubs-close-early/
  The World War I Defense of the Realm Act (DORA) of 1916 is where the practice of early shutting originated.
  The goal of the ordinance was to prevent excessive drinking and maintain sobriety among those employed in weapons plants and other wartime industries.
  Despite DORA’s long-standing repeal, its effects on pub closing times have persisted.
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defence_of_the_Realm_Act_1914
  Alcoholic drinks were watered down and pub opening times were restricted to 12 noon–3pm and 6:30pm–9:30pm. (The requirement for an afternoon gap in permitted hours lasted in England until the Licensing Act 1988.)
  An article from 1987 talking about the Licensing Act 1988:
  https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-06-25-mn-10623-story.html
  The current law that affects about 50,000 pubs dates back to 1915. In that year, the Defense of the Realm Act was introduced to restrict the nation’s 18-hour drinking day so that production of munitions would not be impaired. The government promised that normal service would be resumed at the end of the war, but the promise was never kept.
  Hurd said that under the new bill, public houses will be allowed to stay open from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. six days a week. He did not specify what the Sunday hours will be.
  Licensing laws have already been liberalized in Scotland. But elsewhere in Britain, pubs can open only nine hours a day (9 1/2 hours in London) Monday through Saturday and only five hours on Sunday. Basically, pubs can open only at lunchtime and in the evening until 11 p.m.