Thursday, September 21, 2006

Smoke clears in 1 in 5 pubs in London

Today, The London Paper reported that almost one in five London pubs has banned smoking ahead of new laws - and are reaping the benefits, according to a new survey.

A poll of publicans showed that one in five selling the most food had already stopped customers lighting up. Half of those surveyed by the Morning Advertiser, the industry's newspaper, have made, or are planning changes, such as providing outside areas for smokers.

More than one in ten intends to go smoke-free before the ban, which is expected to come into force during the summer next year.

One in three publicans believed the ban would help them give up smoking. Rosie Davenport, Features Editor on the Morning Advertiser, said: "most of the industry has accepted that the smoking ban is now inevitable, even though the Government is still working on the exact guidelines. In our survey, pubs that have already banned smoking are reaping the benefits and are more positive about the future, with 23 percent expecting business to increase after the ban."

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

you know, i'm not sure whether this one in five pubs in London already smokefree statistic is correct, certainly not in my experience, maybe one in five has non-smoking areas by now. i think it might have been a misread, they were quoting some report i think...

Anonymous said...

I have to agree - 1 in 5 smoke free pubs does sound a lot. Looks like someone forgot to do their home work. The London Paper is a free evening paper so we can't really blame them.

I actually find it quite difficult to find completely smoke free pubs in London.

Here are a few rare finds:

Black Friar
174 Queen Victoria Street, EC4V 4EG

Bull, The
13 North Hill, N6 4AB

Camel, The
277 Globe Road, Bethnal Green, E2 0JD

Phoenix
26 Throgmorton Street, EC2N 2AN

Pommelers Rest
196 Tower Bridge Road, SE1 2UN

Sun in Splendour
7 Portobello Road, Notting Hill, W11 3DA