The Pub Graveyard awaits us in May

‘Traversing a high street dotted with shuttered pubs is akin to walking through a graveyard, with the tombstones relaying the message ‘closed forever’ soon to be displayed on the front door’

The pub has been the centre of the British community since time out of mind. The local watering hole, as a place for renourishment at the end of the working day, has retained its status as one of the core features of British life for a millennium; besides the public park, the church, and local workplaces, it enabled entire communities, spanning generations, to unite under one roof, over a pint. It is the beating heart of the community; an escape hatch from the hustle and bustle of everyday life. 

Yet, like most of our once proud British institutions, the pub is in its twilight years, melting through our very fingertips – each drop cascading down into the abyss that was once a pub, hounded out of business by the crusade of modernity. Now, lockdowns have summoned the executioner to slay this wounded animal, plunging a knife into its throat, and simultaneously into the very hearts of all those who hold the experience of the pub close to their souls. 

Traversing a high street dotted with shuttered pubs is akin to walking through a graveyard, with the tombstones relaying the message ‘closed forever’ soon to be displayed on the front door. 2020 saw the closure of close to 10,000 licensed premises, which included pubs, resulting in a 175% increase from the previous non-lockdown year. By November, 72% of firms declared that they were worried about the continuation of lockdown restrictions would force them to shut their doors for good. 

That was in November – I wonder how many businesses have since throw in the towel? Remember, countless businesses are still having to fork out money on rent for a building they are not allowed to open to the public. It is not just the landlords who will see disaster, but their furloughed employees. Already with their wages cut by 20%, many will soon find that they do not have work to return to whenever Government decree announces that pubs can reopen. The Furlough scheme, now extended to September, is the perfect Whitehall toy for hiding the unemployment figures. 

If we are to believe the Government’s promise of permitting indoor service for pubs on the 17th May (I don’t recommend believing this), then it would have been six whole months since 72% of establishments braced themselves for the worst. Although beer gardens will be allowed to seat customers, with many businesses being overrun with bookings for the 12th April, the apocalyptic day of opening, the packed benches will only be a mirage. First of all, beer gardens constitute only a small part of the premises, and only a certain number of customers will be allowed entry at any one time due to ongoing Coronavirus measures, so a skyrocketing demand for alcohol will be met by a stagnant, underwhelming supply. Pubs will struggle to cover the costs of reopening, let alone turn a profit. 

There are of course many licensed establishments which do not possess a beer garden. The industry will be left in a similar situation to that which it found itself in during the Winter, where pubs could serve customers if they ordered what Government guidelines referred to as a ‘substantial meal.’ Many pubs did not serve any food to begin with, so were completely caught off-guard when a daily news briefing announced the new measures, meaning that they had to remain closed over the Christmas Holidays. I’m sure that many caught in this category have faired the worst, and it is now time for many without any outside space to face the full brunt of these new, and incredibly unfair, lockdown measures. 

Pubs were already a dying industry to begin with. From 69,000 pubs enveloping the land in 1980, the number has been cut to just over 42,000 – and that figure is expected to plummet in the coming months when the official statistics roll in. All there is left to write in this article is a battle cry: book out the beer gardens day-in and day-out, and set up camp when the rest of the premises are open (hopefully) in May, to save the British pub.