Bar Flies

[Andy Ven]

A bug bear of mine. Why do people have to stand/sit at the bar and block the route of other customers who are trying to get served (even when there are seats free elsewhere)?

Customer Waiting!

I don't get it. I don't see the attraction of standing where everyone else needs to get past.

[Alesonly]

Yes I find this annoying as well sometimes But if its a large Bar area with plenty of room and one side is kept clear of obstruction for service only I think its OK.
I would much prefer this instead of some soulless gastro Pub where theres just low seats sofas and no bar service like some of these modern gastro Pubs.

[gillhalfpint]

I dribbled a little (not a lot) of beer accidently (of course) down a bare back of a lady who was sitting at the bar with her group of friends who wouldn't budge for me to read the pumps very well, and I had difficulty reaching the bar with my money or to collect my beer.

If there have to be seats at the bar, I applaud the Wellington in Birmingham where arrows on the bar declare an area to be free of stools thus giving access.

[trainman]

I rather like standing at the bar, rather than immediately making for a seat but, because I, like Gill & most here, understand the need for punters to look properly at pumpclips etc, I'm always conscious to try not to stand in an inconvenient position, or to move when someone is evidently trying to look at the selection or get served.

I'd be willing to put a few bob on the likelihood that the ignorant woman & her friends in Gill's tale were NOT drinking real ale and thus give no thought to where they cause an obstruction, though simple manners should come into play to enable another customer to reach the bar!

I recall a pub in Sutton (I must have been lost!) where a 'lady' had the bar menu open and propped up at the bar obscuring 5 of the 6 handpumps! (Turned out it was the same bank of 3, repeated).

[Andy Ven]

I applaud the Wellington in Birmingham where arrows on the bar declare an area to be free of stools thus giving access.

I think that's good but, ironically, I was in the Wellington yesterday lunchtime and there was a big crowd stood drinking and chatting between the arrows so it was a squeeze to get to the bar even though there was a fair bit of space elsewhere. It's not the only pub where this happens though.

[arwkrite]

Watch people and you will see some like to congregate at choke points and look amazed when you ask to come past. Not only pubs but in in offices ,factories,shops anywhere. The same goes for coffee machines , they have their drink so sod any one else trying to gain access. Some local pubs have The Gang of However Many. They sit / stand at the bar from about 3pm talking golf , horse racing or where they have been or going on holiday next. They all have permatans and 4X4s parked well away from the pub, but you can never work out where their income is from. The women have plenty of gold jewelry but in my neck of the woods men limit themselves to a gold watch. No excess of bling. These are all aged 40 plus, white Anglo Saxon , dressed in expensive casual style while the men drink ale with scotch later the women drink a spirit in orange juice. Face is everything. A couple of Thai brides have appeared on the scene but are effectivley cut out by the females ,so they sit together totally ignored by their husbands. I am glad to say some of us lower orders make the effort to talk to them.

[Farway]

Watch people and you will see some like to congregate at choke points and look amazed when you ask to come past. Not only pubs but in in offices ,factories,shops anywhere. .

A personal bug bear of mine, the daft s0ds who stop in supermarket doorways whilst they think about goodness knows what.

I once ran into the back of an old bloke with my trolley when he suddenly stopped in the exit, after apologies he walked on a few paces, then suddenly stopped again, I ran into him with my trolley again, I think he at last caught on that stopping abruptly in choke point is a daft thing to do

[Eddie86]

I like the idea of marking out where there's a through-fare at the bar. Most of the people we get at the bar seem to be decent enough to shift, but listing the beers, abvs, breweries and style on a blackboard in the pub helps alot! I think the wellington has a TV screen at the end of the bar if memory serves me correctly...

[gillhalfpint]

Another pet hate is going to spoons and having to inhale a deep breath of fresh air before pushing through the crowd of smokers congregating round the door.

The Wellington has a couple of the screens so the beers available can be seen and yes this is a great idea.

The Babington in Derby has a great list of beers displayed this way too. Good idea for any pub with a brill selection.

[arwkrite]

But to be fair having to run the smokers guantlet applies to most pubs whether or not they have a smoking shelter. JDWs is no different to other pubs in having nicotine bouncers.

[trainman]

JDWs is no different to other pubs in having nicotine bouncers.

Not sure about that - the prevalence of jdw high street locations often means they are out front, rather than than out back as could be the case elsewhere. It wasn't an issue, of course, when they first adopted such premises.

[RogerB]

Bar flies can be annoying for all the reasons mentioned but there have been many times when a struggle at the bar breaks the ice and I have ended up spending half the night chatting to the locals as a result.

[Maldenman]

I do think there should be some way of requiring the smokers to move away from the entrance, apart from the fact they block the doors, it can also give the wrong impression to the occasional visitor. In similar vein, it irritates me where smokers stand just outside yet continue to chat to friends inside through those folding windows or doors, with the result that the smoke just drifts or blows back in.

[RogerB]

I do think there should be some way of requiring the smokers to move away from the entrance, apart from the fact they block the doors, it can also give the wrong impression to the occasional visitor. In similar vein, it irritates me where smokers stand just outside yet continue to chat to friends inside through those folding windows or doors, with the result that the smoke just drifts or blows back in.

...and they mess up photos!

[Farway]

...and they mess up photos!

Agree with that, but on a positive note the resulting photo does give a good "bad" impression of the pub IYSWIM, so a casual visitor will know they may have to run the nicotine gauntlett

[NickDavies]

Watch people and you will see some like to congregate at choke points and look amazed when you ask to come past..

The worst place for that is the Underground, especially at this time of year. West End stations in the evening rush hour are the worst, gaggles of tourists get to the bottom of the escalators then stop dead to hold a conference on where to go next, oblivious to the two or three hundred people a minute barrelling down behind them. Sometimes you have to shout or push through them to avoid getting trampled to death yourself.

[arwkrite]

Having a smoking area out the back makes no difference to some smokers. I suppose there is more chance of you seeing friends pass by if you are stood in the street. Any outside area, front , back or top of the pub is now used for smoking. Perhaps tunneling your way in is the answer to the doorway smoker.

[Eddie86]

Completely my personal opinion, but the mess left by smokers with fag butts in the plants, just tossed on the lawn or thrown out onto the street in front of the pub does smokers no favours to a non-smoker

[Alesonly]

Thats one reason the Government announced back in February are proposing too change smoking rules to ban smoking within I think it was 10 meters of any public door way too stop Office workers Pub goers Etc blocking doorways. whether this gov will carry it though I don't know But it was proposed back in February.

[ETA]

Completely my personal opinion, but the mess left by smokers with fag butts in the plants, just tossed on the lawn or thrown out onto the street in front of the pub does smokers no favours to a non-smoker

I've never understood why butts aren't viewed the same way as other litter - people are frowned upon by the geenral public if they chuck down kebab wrappers, tin cans, chocolate papers and so on, so why is it acceptable to throw down fag-ends?

[arwkrite]

Butts have now made many outside sitting areas at pubs look like rubbish tips. Because they are outside some smokers simply throw away the still smouldering butt making no effort to put it out in an ash tray. On windy days the simple open ashtray is self cleaning but few of the butts get cleaned up. The ground around so many pubs remind me of the popular beaches in Florida which, because of endangered turtles laying eggs, are never cleaned. I do not know of any pub in the UK having that problem preventing the grounds from being kept clean.

[Conrad]

It really is the negative side of the smoking ban, I hate running the smoke gauntlet when going into a pub. Also one of our local pubs spills out onto a pavement that is way too narrow and the smokers don't get out of your way despite it being an 'A' road they are trying to force you to walk on (can't think where I get the opinion that most smokers are selfish ****s).

[Alesonly]

I've never understood why butts aren't viewed the same way as other litter - people are frowned upon by the general public if they chuck down kebab wrappers, tin cans, chocolate papers and so on, so why is it acceptable to throw down fag-ends?

They are enforced By some council wardens Three of Our tube staff at work have been fine £50 each on the spot so far this year for throwing there fag buts on the floor outside the tube station after going outside for A quick fag. They had a good old argument and with the council official and they all tried the old argument its not council property its part of London underground but it did not wash they still got a fine.

[Strongers]

Being a smoker myself I would just like to mention how annoying it is when people put folded up crisp packets in the ash tray and as an ex barman I would also like to mention how annoying it is collecting glasses that have folded up crisp packets pushed into them. I think that there should be a designated crisp eating area 10 metres from the property and signs should be erected stating 'IT IS ILLEGAL TO EAT CRISPS IN THESE PREMISES'.

[Farway]

I've never understood why butts aren't viewed the same way as other litter - people are frowned upon by the geenral public if they chuck down kebab wrappers, tin cans, chocolate papers and so on, so why is it acceptable to throw down fag-ends?

Our local cop shop had loads of fag ends around the entrance, obviously chucked there by plod & co. I was going to photograph it & send to local rag, but the bu66ers cleared it all up before I had a chance :(

[Eddie86]

Being a smoker myself I would just like to mention how annoying it is when people put folded up crisp packets in the ash tray and as an ex barman I would also like to mention how annoying it is collecting glasses that have folded up crisp packets pushed into them. I think that there should be a designated crisp eating area 10 metres from the property and signs should be erected stating 'IT IS ILLEGAL TO EAT CRISPS IN THESE PREMISES'.

From a 'behind the bar' view, the worst thing to put in an ashtray is ice. No need. Especially as now its all outside, feel free to put the ice on the flowerbeds if you really don't want it!

[gillhalfpint]

Bet the tube workers were not young. Wonder if they had got an on the spot fine if they were 19 year olds dropping a Carling can.

Got annoyed by a youth leaning on the litter bin at a bus stop swigging from a can, and when he had finished he chucked it over a hedge into someones garden. The rest of his group were no better.

[ETA]

Bet the tube workers were not young. Wonder if they had got an on the spot fine if they were 19 year olds dropping a Carling can.

Got annoyed by a youth leaning on the litter bin at a bus stop swigging from a can, and when he had finished he chucked it over a hedge into someones garden. The rest of his group were no better.

I had a go at a teenager I saw doing that once - he gave me a mouthful of abuse initially, but to his credit he saw my point and politely agreed to pick up the offending can and place it in the bin by the bus stop 20 yards away.

I got a bollocking off Mrs A who said I was taking a risk - he could have had a knife, been on drugs or, as she correctly pointed out, his 3 mates could have backed him up (although as I pointed out, they were too busy checking their phones for texts, shoes for scuffs and the sky for apporoaching asteroids). She was rigth of course (isn't she always?), but I do think it's a sad situation where we as a society have to carry out a risk assessment before asking someone to remove their litter.