In the historic Cutty Sark pub in Greenwich, south-east London, the cat Mahela purrs and curls up by the bar, a coffee machine hisses and a cluster of heads are studiously bowed over laptops beneath the hull of a 19th-century paddle steamer.
At the bar, education copywriter Jen, who’s worked from this pub on the banks of the Thames a few days a month since parent brewery Young’s brought in its £15 Work from Pub (WFP) packages in 2020, chats with the staff. “It definitely beats the water cooler,” she says.
Across the UK, water-cooler chat is giving way to bar banter as laptop workers migrate into their local boozers and the abbreviation WFP joins those 2020s neologisms WFH (working from home) and, starrily, WFA (working from abroad).
Pubs are braced for a rough ride this autumn as suppliers cancel the long-term fixed-price energy contracts many rely on. The energy support package introduced by the government in September offered businesses “equivalent” support for bills to that given to households. But that will only partially offset the squeezes on hospitality providers from rising energy bills, food and drink prices, and staffing costs, and the impact of Britons tightening their belts.
Many pubs have already seen a doubling of their bills in recent months, and country pubs that rely on heating oil and liquefied natural gas are only minimally supported by the government plan.
In August the Fontmell, a Michelin-recommended gastropub in north Dorset, announced that it would close its doors, citing a £58,000 increase in utility costs. In July the Gillygate, a historic public house in York, whose energy bills had risen from £900 to £2,500 a month, announced its closure after 300 years of trading.
The celebrity chef Tom Kerridge, who runs three gastropubs in Marlow, Buckinghamshire, says this is a “frankly terrifying” time for the industry. “Even with a short-term energy price cap, those little community boozers where the owner lives above the pub and they eke out a living will probably go.”
Now increasing numbers of pubs are offering WFP deals to boost their revenue in the hope that laptop workers will want a break from their own home energy bills. The 380 pubs in the Fuller’s chain offer WFP deals from £10 a day, including lunch and a drink, while brewery Young’s has 185 pubs signed up to its £15-a-day deal, which varies from pub to pub but usually includes a sandwich lunch and bottomless tea and coffee.
The microbrewery pub chain Brewhouse and Kitchen, which operates in locations including London, Cardiff and Bristol, also offers a popular “workspace” option, with wifi, quiet spots and power sockets, unlimited hot and soft drinks and – remarkably – printing, for £10 a day. Othership, a community co-working site, has pubs across the country signed up to “host” laptop workers, with membership costing from £25 a year.
Luke McMillan runs flip-flop company Sea Sense from the Flintgate, an independent pub in Weybridge, Surrey, where a £15 “work and play” deal comes with use of power points, quiet stations, unlimited tea and coffee and lunch, plus a pint or G&T sundowner at 5pm.
“I find working from the kitchen table soul-destroying,” says McMillan, who gave up his formal office space a couple of months ago to cut back on operating costs. “The pub is great for its laidback atmosphere, and the best bit is that you get to bond with other pub workers over a beer at the end of the day.”
McMillan estimates that working from the boozer will save him “hundreds of pounds” on his autumn/winter domestic energy bill.
He also feels there’s also a moral duty for homeworkers to share their energy use this winter. The National Grid warned last week that homes and businesses could face power cuts this winter in a worst-case scenario in which Britain cannot import energy from France, Belgium or the Netherlands.
James Bore, the director of a security consultancy, regularly signs up for the WFP deal at his local, the Duck in the Pond in Stanmore, north London. “For 10 quid you get a bacon sandwich, a table with a plug for the day and free unlimited tea and coffee,” he explains.
But is it hard to concentrate on work when surrounded by bar bonhomie? Far from it, according to Bore, who says it’s easier to focus at the pub, without the distractions of “gardening, the fridge and the cats”.
• This article was amended on 10 October 2022 because an earlier version gave the wrong membership rate for the community co-working site Othership: prices start from £25 a year, not from £25 a month.
