Proprietor of Pub with No Children Defends Policy

Proprietor of Pub with No Children Defends Policy

London (Parliament News) – Pub landlord David Worcester defends his pub’s child-free policy, receiving local and international support after a viral tweet. He emphasizes creating a relaxed environment

A pub landlord who went viral over a sign advertising a dog-friendly, child-free policy has defended the policy and says he has received messages of support from the local community as well as internationally.

According to the Guardian, David Worcester, who supervises the Lower Red Lion in St Albans, Hertfordshire, expressed the sign had been outside the pub for years ā€“ but only garnered a strong response online after a user tweeted a photo of the chalkboard with the comment ā€œfound my new localā€.

The post, which has been considered 75m times and welcomed more than 3,400 replies, divided commenters, with one answering: ā€œWhy has it become socially acceptable to literally hate children?ā€

But Worcester declared his pub had received messages of support. ā€œThe reaction from the local community has been very positive, the reaction from everywhere further afield has been nothing but positive. Iā€™m getting emails from Australia, an email from Bristol. Everything is optimisticā€“ the only negativity was on the initial Twitter [post].

ā€œThere were some pretty wild blames. But the only people that were charging me of that were people that have never been to the pub,ā€ he said, adding that it seemed to be mostly people living abroad.

Worcester described BBC Three Counties Radio that he had ā€œno complaint to children in any other pub, ever, I just donā€™t want them in mineā€.Ā 

He presented that the policy had been in place ā€œfor about 11 yearsā€ and had been exactly at a previous venue where he worked.

The pub landlord said: ā€œI just want to create an environment where my customers can sit and relax, it only takes one child to kick off and that spoils it for absolutely everybody.

ā€œWeā€™ve got upwards of 40 pubs in St Albans, all of which are child-friendly, most are dog-friendly, I believe Iā€™m the only one in the area that isnā€™t.ā€

Daniele Naddei

Daniele Naddei is a journalist at Parliament News covering European affairs, was born in Naples on April 8, 1991. He also serves as the Director of the CentroSud24 newspaper. During the period from 2010 to 2013, Naddei completed an internship at the esteemed local radio station Radio Club 91. Subsequently, he became the author of a weekly magazine published by the Italian Volleyball Federation of Campania (FIPAV Campania), which led to his registration in the professional order of Journalists of Campania in early 2014, listed under publicists. From 2013 to 2018, he worked as a freelance photojournalist and cameraman for external services for Rai and various local entities, including TeleCapri, CapriEvent, and TLA. Additionally, between 2014 and 2017, Naddei collaborated full-time with various newspapers in Campania, both in print and online. During this period, he also resumed his role as Editor-in-Chief at Radio Club 91.
Naddei is actively involved as a press officer for several companies and is responsible for editing cultural and social events in the city through his association with the Medea Fattoria Sociale. This experience continued until 2021. Throughout these years, he hosted or collaborated on football sports programs for various local broadcasters, including TLA, TvLuna, TeleCapri, Radio Stonata, Radio Amore, and Radio Antenna Uno.
From 2016 to 2018, Naddei was employed as an editor at newspapers of national interest within the Il24.it circuit, including Internazionale24, Salute24, and OggiScuola. Since 2019, Naddei has been one of the creators of the Rabona television program "Calcio ĆØ Passione," which has been broadcast on TeleCapri Sport since 2023.