Britain is waking up

June 27, 2020 at 4:20 am Leave a comment

Over the past four months, pubs and restaurants around the country have faced their biggest challenge: they had to keep their doors closed and were only allowed to remain in business with takeaways or cooking for key workers. But now restaurants and pubs which have been closed from Friday, March 20, are allowed to reopen by July 4. Lock down is about to end. Cheers,🇬🇧!

*The Kew Tavern, Kew Bridge Road,*
*Brentford, London*

The time-honoured pursuit of relaxing in a sunny beer garden with a refreshing glass of ale, lager or wine is something used to be taken for granted, an essential part of any British summer. Not so in 2020. Pubs and restaurants were ordered to close their doors on Friday March 20, in the early, frightening days of a lockdown that would dominate the lives over the months that followed and has been much longer in the UK than in other countries. Finally, there is light at the end of the tunnel and the Telegraph‘s cover story on Saturday is about the reopening of pubs and restaurants in Great Britain.

*Barge East, River Lee, Sweetwater Mooring, London Stadium, East London*

Infection rates have fallen, Britain’s alert level has switched from 4 to 3 and, this week, Boris Johnson has announced that the two-metre rule we’ve grown so accustomed to can now be replaced with a less restrictive “one metre plus” distancing recommendation. “Our long hibernation is coming to an end,” he told the Commons on Tuesday, as he explained that England’s pubs and restaurants could open their doors to customers once again on July 4.

*Boundary London, Rooftop Bar & Grill in Shoreditch, 2-4 Boundary Street,*
*Hackney, London*

There are an estimated 27,000 pubs with beer gardens in the UK. Finally relaxing in a sunny beer garden will be allowed again. And also in-door restaurants that had suspended their service will be returning post-lockdown. The new rules allow customers to sit and enjoy their pints on-site (though not at the bar). Indoor hospitality will be limited to table service, meaning bar orders still won’t be an option.