Pub Beer Gardens Now Become Smoking Gardens

By Author: Bernard Fowler
Total Articles: 27
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Smoking in bans in the UK made tobacco smokers move into areas outside bars and pubs. Would now these areas annoy non-smokers in the summer? It is a warm and shiny day, so you take your pint from the bar and go outside to sit in the sunshine to admire the sun. However, when you go outside you face thick sheet of tobacco smoke. In case you are a smoker, you are glad to go and smoke in cold, rain-spattered doorways while your non-smoking friends enjoy the warmth inside.

For those who dislike other people's second-hand smokes, it is an unwelcome reminder of the days when ingesting the emissions of drinkers was quite unavoidable.

In the UK tobacco ban laws prohibiting smoking in indoor public places were adopted in 2006 and 2007. Now is visible transformation of gardens and outside seating areas into smoking lounges.

These days the legacy of the law remains controversial. Those who support the law say it has heath benefits which will save Englishmen a lot of money, but opponents claim it has restricted private freedoms and hit the pockets of landlords and restaurant owners. In spite of controversion, they agree ...
... that areas outside eating and drinking establishments have become the territory of the smokers.

For most of the year smokers and non-smokers don't mix. Thus thay are segregated for around 10 months out of every 12. Problems appear during those rare months when the sun is warm enough for smokers to venture outdoors. For some people, inhaling those smokes can come as a shock. Barbara Harpham, national director of Heart Research UK and a strong advocate of the anti-smoking laws, complains that sometimes it's like stepping out into a mist.

The majority of people don't like smoking but when they go outside it's imposed on them. Rod Liddle, Sunday Times columnist, is a big cigarettes lover who believes the law should be abolished, says there is a sense of solidarity among those ejected outside which makes them deeply jealous about their space.

"It's not a camaraderie of the beer garden, it's a camaraderie of smokers," he insists, adding that fuelling all this is a profoundly established sense of protest. "I enjoy smoking in beer gardens, standing around in public places spreading my smoke, but I'd rather go inside during the winter when it's cold."

It is evident that the landscape of the British pub has changed since the ban came into action, as they become favorite place of smokers. In the year after the ban in England was introduced, one brewery chain alone, Shepherd Neame, spent more than £3m building and renovating beer gardens and outside spaces, a sum of around £5-10,000 per pub.