The Bull, Romford

My wife and I visited Romford Market on Sunday 3 June, for the 2012 Diamond Jubilee celebrations. We took our son and two teenage daughters into the pub for some food and non-alcoholic drinks, and were refused on the basis that the two girls did not have ID. The fact that they were supervised by two adults (us), and that we did not want anything alcoholic cut no ice with the bar staff. Eventually, we were able to get some food for our son (who happened to have his provisional driving licence on him), but the bar staff would only put the order through after the girls had actually gone out of the door. Even then, it took nearly half an hour for the food to materialise. When we checked with the bar staff, no-one was able to tell us how long the food would be, or even if the order was being processed.
Whilst this was going on, I stood in the porch by the front doors, and was absolutely gobsmacked by what happened next. One of the bar staff had come into the porch to tell customers that they could not take their glasses there. The customer did argue that they were still on pub premises, so they had not taken the glasses away from the pub, but this again cut no ice. He was told to take his glass back inside.
Now this kind of attitude would be unacceptable in everyday life, but there was a major celebration going on in the market. One would expect the pub to open its doors and join in with the party atmosphere, as they would do anywhere else in the UK and in the world.
We did not let the pub's unreasonable and outdated approach ruin our day, but it would be safe to say we will not be visiting the Bull again anytime soon!

5 Jun 2012 00:27