About people smoking in beer gardens?

[Shellym13]

I know I am being U but we just got back from a lovely weekend away. Weather was fantastic and we loved sitting outside to eat and chat in the sun.
I was so annoyed with the amount of smokers using the beer garden as a smokers den. All my family smokes but I am quite sensitive to the smell! I hate walking through the crowds gathered at the door but when you're trying to eat and everyone is smoking or rather lighting cigarettes and leaving them burning away in ashtrays, it was awful.
Is it just me or would separate outdoor areas be a good idea, the smell just makes me heave! Just because you are outside doesn't mean the smoke doesn't blow in your face. if a place e is serving food should it not be separated.
Apologies to smokers I know we all have to live together, I'm not really sure what the solution is.

Pub isnt for eating. Its for chilling and relaxing and that should involve the smokers. And crisps.

Gastro-pub is a combo so its up to the owner to decide if they fall on the food side of things or the drinks side of things.

Restaurants are for food and its gross to eat when someone is smoking so I can see the point of having different areas then.

So it does depend on the purpose of the establishment. But even if there is a change, those who have already forced the smokers outside will find another group of people whose space they now want.

I'm not a smoker but tbh I would rather see kids play areas banned in pubs before smoking.

Me too Reow pubs are no place for children. Restaurants yes, pubs no.

What are the laws about kids in pubs in England? They're turfed out at 8pm up here in Scotland and even pubs that serve food have restrictions on where children can be past a certain hour. Some places don't allow them at all. Never seen a kids play area in a pub in our area but we're rural.

Do you mean working class pubs LRD?

Pubs were on the decline already but the smoking ban sent them over the cliff edge.

expat I was vaguely thinking about mixing my own juice but never got round to buying nicotine before the TPD. Can you still get high strength in decent quantities for mixing?

Probably a reflection on the tines but I think if they removed the kids play areas a few pubs would probably go out of business. It's standing room only at our local with the big kids area at the weekends and it doesnt have to be warm and sunny either. Lots of extended families and groups having lunch and kids playing.
Really interesting replies, it just shows how different things are important to people.

'Can you still get high strength in decent quantities for mixing?'

Yes, you can! Come join us on the vape threads. I've been mixing for about a year and have also found a few good forums for it. It takes some getting used to, but once you master it, it's the way to go, IMO. I even bring my vape to the US when I visit.

Banning kids play areas in pubs would cause more damage to the pub trade where we are. Full of families, mid week when most are at work there are lots entertaining young kids here!

I'm on the threads expat I used to be PlentyOfPubeGardens but had to make a new account. Haven't been very active over there for a bit though, I should stick my nose in and say on the vipers thread.

Ah now I know it's summer luffs a smoking thread me

The nice old building with exposed beams and a lovely garden and play area and a gastro menu, where you park your pushchair on the two sunny weekends we get a year is not a pub, not any more. It still brands itself on the quaint olde worlde idea of a pub but it's really just a relaxed all-day restaurant which bizarrely is both licenced to sell alcohol and is aimed at families.

It's a theme restaurant for pissed parents, built on an appropriation of working class culture. Dunno why I still care about them really.

pencils - no, I don't mean working class pubs.

(Not quite sure how you get from people being unpleasant to 'working class,' either. )

If beer gardens were split into smokers and non-smokers...it would only be a week or so before the non-smokers were moaning that the smell of ciggies was floating over to their area

I don't smoke (tobacco) so it doesn't affect me at all but I do find it amusing that its fine to expect all the smokers to go into the beer gardens when its cold and windy, but when its nice people expect them to be banned from pubs completely instead.

The laws in England have changed regarding purchase of vape liquid, too. You aren't allowed to buy the big bottles anymore, just 10 of the smaller ones

This is because vapes are successfully helping too many people to stop smoking and as a result of this, tax intake is dropping. Its pathetic really.

Where we are, the pubs that have gone out of business or are empty, are the grim kind where people went purely to smoke, drink, and be unpleasant. I really don't care if they go out of business

Oh no, not unpleasant people? Aiiiieeeeee.

YABU unless the beer garden is particularly enclosed (and therefore breaches the ban) or there is a dedicated smoking area and smoking is expressly prohibited by the landlord in the beer garden (this is the case in my local).

I am a non-smoker and full supporter of the ban, but feel that people should be free to smoke outside otherwise we might as well ban it completely.

It's the working class pubs that have shut. The suburban locals that were near where people live. The ones left are the city pubs and the naice family pub-themed restaurants. People did used to go to the pub to drink, that's what they were for. Smoking is vastly more common among the working class so they smoked there too. Don't know what 'being unpleasant' means, it would help if you were more specific.

Yeah it is tough, a lot of the newer beer gardens are catering for all markets with outdoor bars, BBQ and kids play areas. I always accepted that the smokers areas were mainly at the front.

What do you mean by 'at the front'? The front door? I thought people didn't like having to walk past all the smokers to enter a bar... I don't like having to walk through a cloud of smoke to enter a place.

Where on earth do you live too, where more bars are opening up than ever? Bars are dropping like (bar) flies here

You don't mind us camping out there when it's pissing it down though, eh?

But seriously, you are being U, and don't you find pubs smell of stale beer and piss now that they no longer smell of smoke?

And farts. Don't forget the farts.

When I worked in a back street London pub where people went to smoke and drink they were also very pleasant. People don't go out to have an unpleasant time do they?

I'd far rather smokers were allowed back in. Children and their oblivious/batshit parents are the ones who should be banned.

I dont drink but I do smoke my only vice I havent kicked yet, but not particularly looking to yet, non-smokers you are welcome in my eyes to have an opinion on smoking in the beer garden when your out there in February and not just when its a sunny day

Finding a soloution doesn't just depend on the smokers it depends on the non smokers too.

Simply having an area cleared for people to eating wouldn't work. Complaints would still happen if it was full at peak times. Or you'd get someone like our former neighbour who complained about dh smoking in our garden because her kids could see him doing it when they were on their trampoline.

So the old working class pubs that are apparently closing down at such an alarming rate, (because of said smoking ban), were mainly frequented by blokes escaping family life, smoking and getting pissed. Good riddance to those pubs and welcome to modern pubs where the whole family are welcome (women and children!), and smoking is banned. That is a positive step for society as a whole.