Does a pint in London really cost £10? May 6, 2026 Recent reports of £10 pints in the capital will have caused many a punter to spit out their bitter in disbelief. Pint prices in London edge higher every year, but the once-distant prospect of paying double figures for a beer has already arrived, according to some reports. Stanley’s Rooftop Bar, perched above a four-star hotel [...]
Toast the City winner: The Rising Sun on what makes a great pub May 5, 2026 At the inaugural Toast the City Awards, one of the most amazing moments was seeing Sheila Dixon, one half of the husband and wife team behind City pub the Rising Sun, shed a tear as she collected our award for Best Boozer. The Rising Sun is one of those pubs where everyone feels like a [...]
Lectures in pubs are selling out. Sorry Michael Gove – experts are back May 5, 2026 Once shunned by a populace 'tired of experts', a new generation is embracing intellectualism with personal curriculums and lectures for leisure.
Tax hikes call time on two pubs a day crushing 2,400 jobs May 5, 2026 The government’s bitter round of tax hikes imposed on the hospitality industry is said to have forced the closure of two pubs a day in the first three months of the year in yet another blow to the already bruised sector. Figures from the Beer Bar and Pub Association (BBPA) showed 161 pubs across Britain [...]
Greene King selling 150 pubs over ‘unprecedented costs’, boss says May 4, 2026 Greene King’s decision to put 150 pubs up for sale was a reaction to the “unprecedented” costs facing hospitality, its boss has said. The pub chain, one of the UK’s largest, revealed plans to put as many as 150 pubs on the chopping block in March and chief executive Nick Mackenzie told City AM this [...]
‘Slightly unnerving’: Greene King enlists AI to answer pub phones April 29, 2026 Greene King has turned to AI-generated assistants to staff its bars as hospitality firms battle to absorb rising costs, City AM can reveal. The Chinese-owned pub chain, one of the UK’s largest, is using a “virtual assistant” named “Charlie” to answer the phone at a number of sites, including in London. The shift to digital [...]
Hows Trump’s war in Iran is hitting hospitality April 22, 2026 The hospitality sector has already been hammered by taxes, regulation and minimum wage hikes. Now Trump’s war in Iran is hitting everyone’s discretionary spending, says Sacha Lord I’ve written so much about how Hospitality, not just in London, but across the whole of the UK is suffering right now. I’ve been scathing towards the Chancellor, [...]
‘Devastating’ tube strikes: Pubs brace for 40 per cent sales hit April 20, 2026 London’s pubs and restaurants are bracing for a knock of as much as 40 per cent of daily sales from this week’s tube strikes as industry leaders warn of the “devastating” impact on hospitality. The capital’s hospitality industry is set to be the hardest-hit from the industrial action, which is due to begin at noon [...]
‘Relentless pressures’: More hospitality firms forced to shut even before Iran war April 17, 2026 The rate of corporate collapse in hospitality surged in February in signs the sector was struggling to stay afloat even before the Iran war brought further cost pressures. The number of accommodation and food service firms declaring insolvency jumped by 22 per cent to 270 in February, according to government data. This acceleration of the crisis [...]
Beer fear: CO2 shortage could lead to state-backed beer at World Cup April 16, 2026 Brits face drinking state-backed beer during the Fifa World Cup as CO2 shortage fears leave breweries and boozers reliant on government gas. The war in Iran has caused chaos across Gulf shipping lanes with government analysis suggesting a closure of the Strait of Hormuz for a long period of time could lead to shortages of [...]