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 – but only garnered a strong response online after a user tweeted a photo of the chalkboard with the comment “found my new local”.
The post, which has been considered 75m times and welcomed more than 3,400 replies, divided commenters, with one answering: “Why has it become socially acceptable to literally hate children?”
But Worcester declared his pub had received messages of support. “The reaction from the local community has been very positive, the reaction from everywhere further afield has been nothing but positive. I’m getting emails from Australia, an email from Bristol. Everything is optimistic– the only negativity was on the initial Twitter [post].
“There were some pretty wild blames. But the only people that were charging me of that were people that have never been to the pub,” he said, adding that it seemed to be mostly people living abroad.
Worcester described BBC Three Counties Radio that he had “no complaint to children in any other pub, ever, I just don’t want them in mine”.
He presented that the policy had been in place “for about 11 years” and had been exactly at a previous venue where he worked.
The pub landlord said: “I 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.
“We’ve got upwards of 40 pubs in St Albans, all of which are child-friendly, most are dog-friendly, I believe I’m the only one in the area that isn’t.”