Crackdown on Sidewalk Drinking Pits British Pubgoers Against the ‘Fun Police’

A London council’s proposal is threatening one of Britain’s great summer joys: getting sloshed while standing up.

LONDON—In Britain, a night at the pub doesn’t require a table, a chair or even indoor shelter. It just needs a pint and somewhere to stand.

If it’s summer in London, people are outside pubs, pint in hand.

On summer evenings here, the streets are thronged with people spilling out onto the sidewalk to enjoy a pint and take a rare break from complaining about the weather. It’s a fixture of British life—and, for many, an essential right.

“The minute it’s bright and sunny, people just lose their minds,” said Harriet Stansell,

Harriet Stansell, right, says the beautiful buildings and history help distinguish British pub culture from drinking elsewhere.

Pity the politicians who appeared to threaten the tradition at the very heart of British summertime.

Westminster City Council, hoping to reduce noise and disorder at closing time in Soho and the West End, took aim at what bureaucrats term “high-volume vertical drinking” with new proposed licensing rules.

The draft plan, which largely applies to new venues, seeks to “reduce the extent of or remove opportunities for vertical drinking.” Some venues would be subject to strict table-to-chair ratios and only be able to serve drinks as a table service. Venues could also be barred from serving alcohol to anyone not sitting down with a substantial meal. New applicants for licenses should aim for “a predominantly seated operation,” the proposal suggests.

Londoners aren’t taking the changes lying down. Drinkers, politicians and the national press have all rallied behind the fundamental right of all Brits to get sloshed while standing up.

The council is trying to kill London nightlife, the Daily Mail proclaimed. The Times of London called limiting alcohol sales to seated customers “foolish puritanism.” A columnist at the Daily Telegraph dismissed local officials as “clipboard-wielding killjoys.”

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan instructed the council to rewrite its draft policy, which he termed “overly onerous and archaic.”

“You can’t run a world-famous nightlife district with a village-hall mindset,” he wrote on X.

Westminster City Council wants to ‘reduce the extent of or remove opportunities for vertical drinking.’

The council’s leader, Paul Swaddle, accused Khan of “an attack on Westminster orchestrated by the mayor in his quest to take control of licensing.”

Once a red-light district rife with strip clubs and prostitution, Soho is now the destination of choice for a night on the town. Its narrow, winding streets are brimming with theaters, restaurants and the highest concentration of pubs in the city.

Pint-holding crowds standing outside “adds to the buzz of the area,” said George O’Mahoney, 27, who regularly enjoys an after-work pint. Ending that could kill Soho’s culture, he said. “Look how small this pub is! Imagine everyone on a Thursday just standing inside. You couldn’t do that.”

At the Duke of Wellington, Ryan McDowell, 33, a bartender who lives above the establishment, estimates about 60 customers congregate outside on a busy night. Life on Wardour Street can be chaotic, but he doesn’t mind.

 Bartender Ryan McDowell, who lives and works in Soho, says pubs feel communal. ‘People will come in just to have a cup of tea.’

“You get locals who live in this area who probably hate it, but on the other hand, why are you living in Soho if you’re going to complain about the noise?”

This isn’t the first crackdown on the beloved British pastime. Known historically as “perpendicular drinking,” consuming alcohol while standing has long been a target for regulators, licensing authorities and temperance campaigners. The practice—most often associated with the working class, who in earlier eras couldn’t afford sit-down restaurants—was expressly forbidden in the early 20th century as politicians tried to curb unruly behavior.

In modern times, rising costs and changing social habits have led to the closure of thousands of pubs, making many Brits fiercely protective of pub culture. Saving them has also become a salient political issue—an easy win in a fraught climate.

Westminster City Council says its aim is to ‘promote a well-managed and varied day’ in a busy part of the city.

“Busy pubs full of people talking to each other is not a public nuisance, it is British life, and it is thousands of jobs,” a spokesperson for new Prime Minister Andy Burnham said of the proposed rules. “Soho did not become world famous by taking last orders early, switching the lights off at ten o’clock.”

Westminster City Council insisted it wasn’t seeking to ban pubgoers from drinking while standing up. It published what it described as a “myth-busting” Q&A about the scandal.

Under a section titled, “Aren’t you being the fun police?,” the council said it supported the pub trade but that it also had to consider if new venues should allow standing outside when the surrounding streets are already full of people. “That’s just common sense,” it said.

Pubgoers aren’t so sure. They argue the neighborhood isn’t overly raucous.

“We come to the pub when we finish work, come for two, have a debrief of the day and then we go home,” said Hope Aris, 24, who works in Soho. “And the pubs definitely keep control of it.”

Enforcing the proposed regulations could prove more difficult. Harry Thomas, 30, said he couldn’t imagine pubs keeping people from drinking outside.

During Covid, when pubs could only stay open to serve meals, pubgoers across the country ordered the smallest appetizers on the menu to keep the beers flowing.

“I don’t think anything is going to stop British people going to pubs,” Thomas said.

Write to Julia Amann at julia.amann@wsj.com