Queens Road social Club, and Farm Road social Club look like there both going down the pan, Queens Road has lost loads of customers in the last few weeks, and its been warm.
Farm road is the same theres no where near as many people in there now, is the smoking ban going to start telling on landlords and landladys soon?

I think the smoking ban will really start to tell in the cold winter months.Most smokers won't really mind standing outside that much in july and august,when it's mild,but it will probably be a different story in winter,when it is freezing,raining,snowing and windy!!
Presumably,that's one of the reasons the ban was implemented on 1st july and not on say,1st december/january.

another nail in the coffin for the liscence trade

Good point Steve what i made months before the government thought they had done the right thing, this is the time now where it will proove to be the case, or not.

I suppose the pubs that have erected smoking shelters outside with lights & heaters like the Belfry at Sothall won't really suffer too much in winter,but what about the small pubs that haven't got the space or funds to do this?They will surely be struggling come winter,won't they?

I'm surprised how easily the ban appears to have been imposed on Scotland and Ireland.
Given that 26% of people in England smoke and that the majority of them are also likely to go out for a beer you'd anticipate it's gonna be majorly unpopular once the weather deteriorates and the tempearature drops!

We'll see.

I suppose the pubs that have erected smoking shelters outside with lights & heaters like the Belfry at Sothall won't really suffer too much in winter,but what about the small pubs that haven't got the space or funds to do this?They will surely be struggling come winter,won't they?

That depends on whether people are so addicted to smoking that they won't go out for fear of missing a fag, or so addicted to booze that they'll forgo their tobacco for the sake of getting bladdered and falling over.

What a choice... :rolleyes:

Everyone to there own, id like to know the % of people who drink in the uk not regurlaly just drink, id say that was a few.
Same with smoking, rules don't change people they just change peoples way of life.
I still smoke, drink, just in better comfort these days and its saving me about a hundred quid a week.

If you are so concerned about these places closing then use them! If you can't have 1 or 2 drinks without cigarette i would consider that a bit desperate. Have one as you walk in, have 2 drinks and go somewhere else 20 minutes later!

Personally my lunch trade is up about 20% and that is when traditionally our summer months are slow as we are majority office trade and a lot of my regular customers take their summer holidays. I have known of maybe 3 or 4 people that use the pub less due to the smoking ban. All in all people dont seem to care, we have a big umbrella and the smokers seem quite happy in the garden when the cold comes we will have heaters. On Monday for our quiz i commented to the bar staff that not one person left for a cigarette between the start and end of the quiz 9.30 till 10.45, so it seems the majority of smokers can control their urge to smoke quite well.

Well like i say, the smoking ban has not been truelly tested, i hope for your buisiness it goes well, but i know it will cause a lot of hassle for people come the colder time of the year, heaters or not.
And as for going to these places, why should i, its not what i used to like which was both a pint a fag, how long till pool tables and bandits are banned cause children can go into estableshments till a certain time?
Or toilets should be put outside because punters don't wash there hands?
Its beyond a joke to be fair, and is only making the biggest impact on the people who "used" to serve the smoker.

I think it's too early to truly tell what effect the smoking ban has had so far, although if pushed I would probably say it's benefited some pubs but lost trade slightly in others. I'm told in Scotland once it bedded in most pubs were better off - just a few rough estate pubs that suffered.

In terms of social clubs, numbers probably would be down anyway due to summer holidays, however I would concede that they would be hit harder than pubs due to the high proportion of smokers and being members only it's harder to attract new non-smoking customers. However none of the people I know involved in the club trade have said things are noticably bad as a result of the smoking ban.

Perhaps the reason social clubs are allegedly dying is two fold - they are dinosaurs that refuse to move with the times and adapt their offer, and that they don't promote themself very well.

The image I have of social clubs is a few old men sat in a foggy hall drinking smoothflow bitter whilst chain smoking beneath a cabinet of trophies won in darts in 1963 whilst their nephews play snooker in the next room with the que in one hand and fag in the other. I'm pretty confident that's absolute bollards but a lot of people do think that and they don't promote themselves to give us any reason to think otherwise.

Social Clubs need to advertise what they offer and what they are about, and how you become a member. They need to consider putting decent beer on, and perhaps do food. Also reclaim the best of the past and put bands on at weekends. Perhaps create a nice outside drinking area for smokers - perhaps by reducing the size of the car park - how many drive there these days anyway?

Speaking to someone in the trade, I know for a fact that a great majority of drinking establishments have been hit really hard by the smoking ban. In some instances, takings are down by 50% and you only have to visit pubs to see that they're getting quieter and quieter (I'm referring more to local pubs as opposed to town pubs on a Saturday night).

The message that I'm getting is that this cannot continue. When the bad weather returns I doubt many a pub-goer will wish to have a fag standing in the driving rain/wind/sleet/snow. I firmly believe that we will soon start to see pubs closing at an astonishing rate.

There needs to be compromise and common sense. Once a smoker decides to stop at home and drink there instead and once that person realises just how much cheaper it is to drink at home, they may never venture inside a pub again.

I really feel for all the publicans, landlords and managers out there. I like drinking in pubs and although it was strange to have a night out last Wednesday night and to come home NOT smelling of smoke, I cannot see many pubs lasting another 12 months if this is allowed to continue.

Time for a rethink.

The doom and gloom merchants were proved wrong in the Republic of Ireland, then Northern Ireland and Scotland, so I think it unlikely that they will be proved right in England.

If pubs are losing customers they just have to try to attract new ones. I know I am much more likely to go to a pub now that I will actually be able to breath and not throw every item I am wearing into the wash or dry cleaning as soon as I get home.

but what about the small pubs that haven't got the space or funds to do this?They will surely be struggling come winter,won't they?

Not realy, the hoards of non-smokers who didn't go out before will fill the pubs and save the day, won't they ?

I enjoy a pub as much as the best man, but at the end of the day, is it a tragedy if we end up with some fewer pubs?

i have noticed a drop in customers in pubs but not so much in social clubs the three on the manor are usually full but i have noticed they are having to get better acts on maybe to get more custom.
i have also noticed how just lately a lot of pubs are burning down supposedly by accident.
i am not a smoker so it only affects me in a good way i did hate coming home with stinging eyes from the smoke and stinking clothes

Not realy, the hoards of non-smokers who didn't go out before will fill the pubs and save the day, won't they ?


Hoards of non smokers will return,Your'e having a larf

The Cow and Calf at Grenoside is even busier since the ban - Last Monday it was standing room only - yes a Monday!

If a business cannot keep itself going or attractive to customers just because of the smoking ban you have to ask yourself why.

If a smoker is staying at home just because they can't have a fag, that just compounds the negative feelings and stereotypes smokers already have.

I was in a pub in East Lancashire just after of the ban came in whilst I waited for my Chinese takeaway to be ready and was in there about half an hour and I was the ONLY customer in the whole pub for the whole of that half an hour. Bear in mind too this was a big boozer on a main road in a town centre.
In 25 years of regular drinking in pubs all over the country i think this is the only time Ive ever been the only drinker especially for that amount of time.
Surely that wasnt completely unconnected to the ban...

I was in a pub in East Lancashire just after of the ban came in whilst I waited for my Chinese takeaway to be ready and was in there about half an hour and I was the ONLY customer in the whole pub for the whole of that half an hour. Bear in mind too this was a big boozer on a main road in a town centre.
In 25 years of regular drinking in pubs all over the country i think this is the only time Ive ever been the only drinker especially for that amount of time.
Surely that wasnt completely unconnected to the ban...


Was that saturday night or tuesday afternoon?

I did expect to see lots more people stood outside pubs smoking, but I've actually seen very few, so either the smokers are cutting-down and staying inside, or they arn't going to the pub at all.

I did expect to see lots more people stood outside pubs smoking, but I've actually seen very few, so either the smokers are cutting-down and staying inside, or they arn't going to the pub at all.

I've been into town once since the ban, and it just seemed as busy as usual. But then, I didn't think town would be affected much, if at all.

My local has been dead since the ban. Just smokers stood outside. But will have to wait and see when the students come back and winter for a truer picture.

I think bingo halls will be hurting the most. They make most of their money during the intervals, and that's the only time they can smoke. The aren't many posters it seems on SF to get any more info though. And I no longer know anyone in the industry.

the decline insocial clubs and wmc's has been going on for years i'm afraid.
i worked as a dj and an instructor @ 3 in Rotherham in the late 90's and early '00's.
2 of them went belly up due to bad management from the committee's.

i frequented the big pub @ graves prior to the ban - there was only me in -and i only needed the loo.
since the ban every pub i've visited has either been busier or just as it was prior.

The Cow and Calf at Grenoside is even busier since the ban - Last Monday it was standing room only - yes a Monday!

never been a pub:D

I was talking to a bloke the other day,and he goes down the pub with 2 mates who both smoke,he is a non-smoker.So his mates are outside in the shelter,so he decided to join them rather than stand alone in the pub.He said there were around 5 or 6 people in the pub and a fair few outside.His argument is,before the ban he would be in the fairly busy pub along with some smokers,now he's in a shelter (10 times smaller than the pub),with roughly the same amount of smokers,so he is now breathing in a hell of a lot more smoke than before,obviously in a more confined area!!So how is this a more healthy atmosphere etc..etc..etc...as the communist labour government have us believe????
The other alternative is to ban smoking in the shelter,and allow smoking in the pub!that seems more logical to me!!!!
We should do as the Italians have done,and stick two fingers up to this ludicrous ban!!

I was talking to a bloke the other day,and he goes down the pub with 2 mates who both smoke,he is a non-smoker.So his mates are outside in the shelter,so he decided to join them rather than stand alone in the pub.He said there were around 5 or 6 people in the pub and a fair few outside.His argument is,before the ban he would be in the fairly busy pub along with some smokers,now he's in a shelter (10 times smaller than the pub),with roughly the same amount of smokers,so he is now breathing in a hell of a lot more smoke than before,obviously in a more confined area!!So how is this a more healthy atmosphere etc..etc..etc...as the communist labour government have us believe????
The other alternative is to ban smoking in the shelter,and allow smoking in the pub!that seems more logical to me!!!!
We should do as the Italians have done,and stick two fingers up to this ludicrous ban!!

we should do it in numbers though.

Was that saturday night or tuesday afternoon?

sorry about that missed the most important bit out! it was wednesday night half hour sometime between about 6.30 and about 7.15

wouldnt it be funny to get flash mob smokers in various pubs!they wouldnt know what had hit them!:hihi:

vote LABOUR things can only get BETTER.

Do you not think its a catch 22.
its not much more expensive to go to the local or even town in alot of cases.
my local wmc has carling at £1.95 and granted its a better pint than town but its only about 40p more in town.
If you have say 8pints thats only £3.20 more
Also the attraction of a band or bingo is now a let down
What do others think??

I think the notion that loads of non-smokers will now flock in droves to pubs,clubs etc..is nonsense.Granted,a few will,but i think in winter they will lose a lot more smoking customers,than non-smoking customers gained.To be honest,how many people do you know who pre July 1st,said they wouldn't go to the pub,club,bingo,football match etc..because there were smokers in there?I don't know anyone.
The nightclubs are a joke,they stamp your hand when you go outside(10 times a night!!),then people queing are moaning because they think you are queue jumping when you go back in,it's just too much hassle.
It just makes me mad.:rant:Why should businesses suffer anyway because of this?Some people will lose their jobs.I know of a pub in Scotland that has since closed down mainly due to this ban,as everyone who used to go in there smoked.Anyway,i'm off now for a fag.I hope a plumber or electrician doesn't come round in the next half hour or they can refuse to work.yawn,yawn!!!!!!

You have to ask what the pub has got to offer it's customers - if it's nothing more than Carling and Sky Sports you can do that at home.

If the pub offers something a bit more such as decent food, real ale, live music, special atmosphere, darts team, pool league etc then those who can't now smoke will probably be persuaded to carry on going, and have something to attract the non smokers who previously stayed away.

And I think it's fantastic I can now come home from a night out without my clothes stinking, eyes stinging and lungs gasping.

You have to ask what the pub has got to offer it's customers - if it's nothing more than Carling and Sky Sports you can do that at home.

If the pub offers something a bit more such as decent food, real ale, live music, special atmosphere, darts team, pool league etc then those who can't now smoke will probably be persuaded to carry on going, and have something to attract the non smokers who previously stayed away.

And I think it's fantastic I can now come home from a night out without my clothes stinking, eyes stinging and lungs gasping.

Funnily enough, the one I highlighted is something you can't buy, or simply gain by putting in any of the others options.