Sheffield pubs blast 'pointless' 10pm coronavirus curfew as famous cocktail bar closes

The award-winning city centre bar Public has led the backlash against the new restrictions, which came into effect on Thursday, September 24 and require venues to close by 10pm.

It shared a post describing the London bar Milk & Honey as ‘the first recorded case of a business dying of curfew’.

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Public commented: “A real trail blazer in U.K. cocktail culture, was waaaay ahead of its time when it opened.

“Highly unlikely a gaff like ours would exist without it. Extremely sad that a pointless curfew has killed it off. It won’t be the last place to fall.”

David Kay, who owns the Queens Head in High Green was similarly critical about the Government’s latest tactic in the fight against coronavirus, which he felt might do more harm than good.

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"We’re OK because we’re a community pub but from what I’ve been seeing over the weekend in city centres including Sheffield it means everyone’s dispersing at once and you’re getting this massive body of people on the streets when before you would have had people leaving at different times,” he said.

“I don’t understand what it's achieving and nor do most of our customers, though they’ve been very good at complying with the new rules.

"Although we’re lucky enough to have been as busy as usual other pubs in Sheffield are really struggling, with some saying their trade is down by 35-40 per cent.

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"That’s a lot of money to be losing at a time when you’re having to employ extra staff because it’s table service only.

"Businesses will close as a result of the curfew. If they don’t close by January they will close in May when they start having to pay back the Covid-19 Bounce Back Loans.

"We’ve had tremendous support as businesses from the Government, which is facing an impossible task, during the pandemic.

”But at the moment the Government always seems to be behind the curve rather than ahead of it, as Boris had talked about being.”