Vertical drinking is simply enjoying an alcoholic beverage while standing up. Now I’ve written those words down, it seems nonsense. But, currently, this is a specific issue between the hospitality industry and Westminster City Council who oversee a large part of Central London, including Soho.
Under Westminster’s licencing policy, new venues are expected to provide more seating, table service and food, with standing, high-volume drinking something to limit.
“The story isn’t necessarily about vertical drinking but it made a good headline and brought attention to the on-going problem of licensing and the ‘cumulative impact zone’,” says John James of Soho Estates. “What Westminster said was that it would look more favourably on applications that had more seated service. Which misses the point because the cost of staffing the venue would rise and there’d be less capacity to pay for it. Businesses realised that instantly but policy writers didn’t.”
That has put Westminster City Council in conflict with London’s mayor Sadiq Khan, who, like James, argues that the policy risks damaging one of London’s most important hospitality districts. A striking statistic in a piece by The Guardian revealed that 81% of consultation respondents opposed the cumulative impact zone, while 84% said the licensing policy would be bad for business. Khan says the council is effectively choosing to let nightlife contract rather than grow.
“At present we’re seeing a battle between the mayor and Westminster so there’s a lot of blame and counter blame thrown about,” says James. “The press are focusing on the jewel that is Soho and rightly, as it cannot be squandered. We as a stakeholder landlord of Soho Estates, a company started by Paul Raymond in 1958, have always supported the growth of independent businesses.”
Westminster says the policy is about managing crime, disorder and overcrowding rather than stopping people standing up to drink. But, says James, that distinction doesn’t reflect what’s happening on the ground. “We should be able to detach crime from licensing,” he says.
Westminster have tweaked the policy but retains restrictions on vertical drinking. Westminster recently approved a new pub, The Lady in Covent Garden, despite being in a cumulative impact zone, because most of the venue is a sit-down restaurant. Its basement bar was permitted only because it operates alongside the restaurant.
Westminster isn’t alone in tackling vertical drinking. Blackpool’s licensing policy favours food-led venues over high-volume, late-night drinking establishments, while Torbay’s policy encourages premises to replace vertical drinking with seated consumption. Both councils use licensing controls to address concerns around crime, disorder and pressure on nightlife areas.
What does the future of Soho look like? James says that in Soho should be accepted as an area of special interest that’s important to the international City of London. “What would be more progressive is having al-fresco eating and drinking, which means more space outside the respective venues,” says James. “This would require infrastructure change, but it’s worked in other areas around Soho like St James, Charlotte Street and the museum district.”
“The effect [of this policy] on late-night venues is minimal but our evening pub culture is threatened,” James adds. “In the past pubs have been closed due to people standing outside on the complaints of one resident.”
The one positive from a drinker’s point of view if that if you’re concerned your country pub will enforce seated pints, don’t fear just yet: this fierce debate is very much focused on highly populated and very busy hospitality regions.
