{"id":5405,"date":"2025-05-27T07:30:21","date_gmt":"2025-05-27T07:30:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/?p=5405"},"modified":"2025-05-27T07:48:18","modified_gmt":"2025-05-27T07:48:18","slug":"early-doors-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/2025\/05\/27\/early-doors-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Early doors"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I saw this subject mentioned somewhere on social media and I thought that I would pass it on.  Pubs situated near markets that operated in the early morning would often open around that time to cater for the workers involved.  Covent Garden and Smithfield markets were once particularly known for this.  It wasn\u2019t restricted to markets.  Several pubs near the railway works in Stratford, east London, also opened early to serve the night shift.  The pubs involved did however have to be specifically licensed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the start of the 20th century, all pubs were permitted to open at 6am but this ended with the Defence of the Realm Act (1914).  This legislation also allowed the Government to take control of breweries and pubs in certain areas, notably Carlisle (the State Management Scheme) and, closer to home, Enfield.  These restrictions were subsequently made permanent by the Licensing Act 1921.  Market hours were however still permitted and, in market towns, pubs were still allowed to stay open during the afternoon on market days.  These days, under the Licensing Act 2003, licensing hours are purely a matter for the local authorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The practice has inevitably declined with the closing of the central London markets and currently, as far as I have been able to establish, just two pubs now use their early licences.\u00a0 These are the Market Porter<\/strong><\/a> by Borough Market and the Grade II-listed Fox & Anchor<\/a><\/strong> in Farringdon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Fox & Anchor, a Young\u2019s house, opens at 7am Monday to Friday (8.30 Saturday and Sunday) and stays open until normal closing times.\u00a0 The Fox & Anchor does serve food from opening time and the standard breakfast costs \u00a318.00 while the City Breakfast, which includes a pint of Guinness, costs \u00a330.00.\u00a0 There are other options.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Market Porter, operated by Market Taverns, opens from 6am to 9am, Monday to Friday only, then opens normally at 10am.\u00a0 There is however no food service during the early session.\u00a0 They will continue opening early for as long as there is the demand.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A number of JD Wetherspoon\u2019s pubs, especially near stations, open early but only for food.  For example, their site on Victoria Station opens at 6am and Barrel Vault at St Pancras opens at 7.30.  Their new opening at London Bridge, the Sun Wharf, is reported to be opening at 6.30.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I saw this subject mentioned somewhere on social media and I thought that I would pass it on.  Pubs situated near markets that operated in the early morning would often… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5406,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5405"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5405\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5407,"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5405\/revisions\/5407"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}