Portsmouth pubs foresee 10pm curfew leading to angry customers and rule-breaking

On Tuesday, the prime minister Boris Johnson announced that pubs across England will need to close by 10pm as of today, in an effort to curtail the spread of the coronavirus outbreak.

Landlords across Portsmouth have met the announcement with a can-do attitude – but also raised concerns ranging from staff safety to illegal lock-ins.

While pubs are used to dealing with rowdy customers, staff are now in ‘a vulnerable position’ having to enforce government policy, according Skye Eadon, assistant manager of The Honest Politician in Elm Grove, Southsea.

She said: ‘We are open until 12.30am on Fridays and Saturdays, and we do get a fair amount of people in.

‘Calling last orders at 9.30pm, no one wants to hear that – a lot of people are going to be quite angry and it’s going to leave staff in a vulnerable position.

‘It’s going to be difficult to kick people out, people already don’t like the social bubble situation.

‘I feel it’s been a bit backward – this curfew is what they should have done first after lockdown.’

And patrons looking to continue drinking may venture on to less Covid-secure premises, according to a spokesman for T W Assets, which owns and runs five pubs in the city, including The Wellington in Old Portsmouth and The Kings in Albert Road.

The spokesman said: ‘I think it will be worse because we are monitoring people and we are enforcing rules.

‘All people will do is go around another person’s house and have a party there, and the knock-on effect will be neighbours calling the police.’

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Landlords are already hearing reports of pubs not being able to enforce social distancing rules – and even pubs deliberately breaking previous lockdown rules, according to Paul Taylor, landlord of The Rose In June.

He said: ‘The biggest thing for me is that all the pubs need to start following the guidelines.

‘There have been a few pubs where the council have had to go in and close them down over night.

‘For the pubs that are sticking to the rules, it’s not fair.’

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