Landlord defends pub’s ‘dog-friendly, child-free’ coverage after signal goes viral | EUROtoday

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A landlord has defended his pub’s child-free coverage after a photograph of an indication promoting the premises as “dog-friendly, child-free” went viral.

David Worcester, who runs the Lower Red Lion in St Albans, Hertfordshire, added that messages of assist have flooded in from the area people and the world over after a social media consumer tweeted an image of his pub’s chalkboard with the caption “found my new local” on Sunday.

Mr Worcester mentioned the signal had been outdoors the Lower Red Lion for years – however has now drawn worldwide consideration, garnering 75 million views and greater than 3,400 replies, and sparked controversy.

One commenter wrote on X: “Why has it become socially acceptable to literally hate children?”

However, the Guardian reported Mr Worcester mentioned: “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 positive – the only negativity was on the initial Twitter [post].

“There were some pretty wild accusations. But the only people that were accusing me of that were people that have never been to the pub.”

Multiple individuals criticised the restaurant on social media for not letting kids in. Others claimed that the restaurant was discriminating towards girls, particularly those that are with their kids. Many additionally took challenge with the truth that animals had been allowed into the restaurant over kids.

“Banning children is banning parents. This disproportionately affects women,” one other replied. “If you are more okay eating next to an animal than a human baby and family you’re an ugly person.”

“I may be humourless and overthinking this but banning small kids from public spaces is misogynistic because it also limits their mothers,” one added. “What if a new mum wants to meet her friend for a drink or coffee?”

However, different individuals discovered amusement within the signal and hit again on the outrage, with some claiming that folks may go to completely different eating places with their households.

“It’s really not that deep – if your child is that gasping for a pint surely you can take them to one of the many pubs which do allow families?” a 3rd mentioned.

Someone else requested: “Where is this? If anything we need more child-free venues. I’d love to swing by!”

And a dad or mum chimed in: “I’m a parent and I think there needs to be more places like this.”

One extra remarked on the sheer scale of the response, saying: “I’m shocked at the amount of discourse that this one picture has created.”

Writing for The IndependentFlic Everett argued that no pub ought to have a child-free coverage, with mother and father being those which are maintaining the venues afloat.

Speaking to BBC Three Counties RadioMr Worcester insisted he had “no objection to children in any other pub, ever, I just don’t want them in mine”, including that the coverage had been in place for over a decade.

He mentioned: “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.”