Frustrated pub begs drinkers to stop queueing single-file and hits out at ‘bizarre’ trend

A FRUSTRATED pub has called out customers for queuing single-file at the bar, telling drinkers it is “NOT A POST OFFICE”. Brits love a good queue system, but the one place it doesn’t sit right for many is at the pub. Still, it seems drinkers are doing just that at Hackney Church Brew Co. in east London – and the pub says it’s “tried everything” to stop it. In a partly serious, partly tongue-in-cheek post on its Facebook page, it said the single-file queues had become a “problem”. Sign up for the Money newsletter Thank you! “WHY ARE YOU ALL QUEUING SINGLE FILE AT THE BAR?!” it said. It continued: “A BAR IS NOT A POST OFFICE. “You do not need to form one enormous, beautifully polite British queue stretching halfway across the taproom while four members of staff stare forlornly at 15 feet of completely empty bar. “This is a relatively new phenomenon. Perhaps it’s a hangover from Covid. Perhaps British politeness has finally gone too far. Whatever caused it, we’re staging an intervention.” The pub said it had tried everything from “polite encouragement” to “signs” and “gentle shouting” It said it was now “appealing directly to your common sense and your deeply buried pre-Covid pub instincts”. Most read in Money “So next Thursday, if you walk in and discover a single-file queue snaking away from the bar, do not join it,” it said. “Walk past it. Walk directly to an empty bit of bar. Order your pint. “You’re not queue jumping. You’re doing your bit to save British pub culture.” The post, which has thousands of likes, had plenty of support from pubgoers who also seemed frustrated. “Oh dear what are folks like, you would have been laughed at in the 90s for doing this,” one person said. Another added: “Just experienced this in the centre of Bristol, just walked to the side of the bar and ordered my beers much to the astonishment of all the youngsters who were queued in 3 lines – bizarre.” A third person said: “It seems to be spreading, seeing it all the time, a queue out the door of the pub whilst the whole bar is empty.” Last year, The Sun reported on a Wetherspoons pub which implemented a queue system – only to be forced to quickly revert back to the traditional order-from-the-bar system. The Surrey Docks boozer in Rotherhithe, South East London, had initially put a sign up telling regulars to get in line. The pub chain’s boss, Sir Tim Martin, has previously said he’s against queuing at the bar. Comment now