Late Night Drinking

Published on 27 November 2005 in , , , , ,

So there I was, sat in a pub having a few pints. We left about 12:30, despite the pub opening for another 30 minutes and with me having drunk a whopping pint more than I normally would. And we managed to get home without causing one fight, and without throwing up on any pavement. Or anywhere for that matter.

Who would have thought it? Merton hasn’t gone completely mental just cos a few pubs can open later now.

Just to make sure, I checked the BBC News website to see what the situation was in the rest of the UK.

…the first weekend of 24-hour drinking began without the widely-feared wave of alcohol-fuelled debauchery and violence.

BBC News: Hewitt positive on licensing laws

Oh, who would have thought it? I expect instant apologies from the Express, Mail and whoever for getting things so wrong. Of course I won’t get them, and I’m sure in six months time, the Daily Mail will be acting as if it had always been in favour of extended licensing hours.

That said, we were lamenting in the pub last night as to how few pubs in the area actually have extended their licensing hours. A trawl of the Merton Council website’s licensing section showed how few pubs in the area have bothered to apply.

My favourite pub in the area, The Trafalgar seems to be resolutely sticking to the old hours if their blackboard is to be believed, whilst even the pubs in Wimbledon Village haven’t got much.

In comparison, many of my old haunts in Ealing are now open to around 1am on a Saturday according to a list published on EalingToday.

That said, I’m not totally convinced by the reliability of the Merton Council website – the Princess of Wales on Mordon Road wasn’t mentioned once in there, yet will now be opening until midnight every night of the week, whilst the Colliers Tup (where we were last night) has 1am on a Friday and Saturday.

As for places with a 24 hour license, well if you haven’t read the council websites, don’t believe the hype and hysteria from the press. Most of them are supermarkets and late night takeaways. Of course we should never let facts get in the way of a good bit of scaremongering.

Still there is one major drawback to this brave new world of treating adults like adults. Alas it means I got to bed late last night and as such, didn’t wake up at a reasonable hour this morning. Although it might have had more to do with me watching a Futurama DVD until 2am than the fact I left the pub a little later than normal…