00:00Yeah, not really, not really happy about that. What's the point?
00:04That's the whole point of coming to Soho, isn't it?
00:06Won't stand for it. We'll stand and we'll stand against them.
00:09That's my position and the position of our people.
00:11I'm standing up now and I need a beer.
00:13A London council has proposed to limit the number of drinkers standing at Soho and West End pubs.
00:19Yep, Westminster council is looking to reduce standing at pubs and ordering at the bar
00:24as part of its new draft licensing policy.
00:27It follows reports by The Guardian that the central London council,
00:31which has jurisdiction over one of the busiest nightlife districts in Europe,
00:35is encouraging more venues to offer fixed seating in a bid to reduce what they call vertical drinkers.
00:41It could see them encouraging bars and pubs to offer only table service
00:45so people don't spill onto the pavements and so excessive drinkers don't disturb others passing by.
00:51The draft policy is currently out for consultation,
00:54so we spoke to Londoners enjoying a pint on the streets of Soho to see what they had to say.
01:00The thought of it is not living in the real world, basically.
01:03It's silly, really. If you ask me, it's kind of like you've literally just come and spoken to us
01:06vertical drinking outside a pub.
01:08So, you know, it's the whole tradition of Soho and the whole social aspect of it, I think.
01:12This is London. This square mile is London.
01:15Standing and being out and enjoying it is a huge part of it.
01:17You congregate with people and these crowds.
01:19The idea of getting rid of all of that is sanitising the whole of...
01:22Yeah.
01:23We don't need... we don't need...
01:24We don't need more rules against, like, leisure.
01:28Too bad for business, especially tourist business.
01:30So, although it's a bad idea, I can't see it happening.
01:33It's not workable at all, actually.
01:34Actually, a bar like this is going to massively affect...
01:37And it's not an alcohol thing.
01:38It's part of lapping up the atmosphere and adding to it.
01:41And I think you really would just be a detriment to anyone experiencing it,
01:44of what it's really about and what it's always been about.
01:46That's the whole point of coming to Soho, isn't it?
01:48It's that it is the history of Soho.
01:50It is, you know, you look back at TV things and clips from Soho in the years gone by.
01:54It's the same culture. It's just carrying on. So why not?
01:57It adds to the vibe, the atmosphere, and it's part of the scene, isn't it?
02:00It's important that people can feel, they have the lights of the liberty to go and drink,
02:04drink outside and relax and not be confined into a building.
02:07Or confined to a chair or a table.
02:09You'll probably fit about 40 people on this street standing up.
02:14And maybe maximum 16 seats.
02:18How far as it would be, you're drinking W1, sitting down,
02:22and then you go to NW1 and you can stand at the bar.
02:25These pubs are so small, they're all Victorian pubs,
02:29that you're going to get a limited number of people in there.
02:32When you've got a hospitality industry on its knees,
02:34and you've got a crisis in this country around togetherness and all of those elements,
02:38I think this is absolutely contradictory to both of those things.
02:40If all the places to pedestrianise, pedestrianise this area, right?
02:45Why is Oxford Street being pedestrianised when Soho is, like, overflowing with pedestrians?
02:55As British people, the only time we dispense with a linear queue is a horizontal queue at the bar.
02:59That's a key bit of who we are culturally.
03:01The only way we are to the end of the street is so quiet,
03:03If you need more, 3-0 connection to the bar.
03:05if you need more information on the street from the street,
03:05Have a great day.
03:05Go to work!
03:06Go to work.
Comments