Campaigners define the Beard Friendly Pub

Beard Liberation Front

20 January

Contact keith Flett 07803 167266

CAMPAIGNERS DEFINE THE BEARD FRIENDLY PUB
The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has named the Jolly Butchers in Hackney as the most beard friendly pub in the UK.

It narrowly beat the Urban Tap House in Cardiff for the coveted Award.

It was also the original winner back in 2012 and a special calendar, the Jolly Beards, was produced to mark the victory.

But what makes a pub Beard Friendly?

Like many things the Beard Liberation Front does, it is a mix of the rather light hearted with some more serious points lurking behind.

The Beard Friendly Pub will have an ambience that welcomes beards. That is, at least some of the bar staff will be hirsute and a noticeable numbers of the customers as well.

It will also sell beard friendly beers. That is not just standard bitters and lagers but interesting IPAs, stouts and much else in cask, keg and bottle.

The number of such pubs in the UK has increased significantly in the last 5 years.

Counter posed to the beard friendly pub is the beard unfriendly pub. The customers are almost exclusively older men who regard David Cameron as a dangerous leftie and who do not welcome people with beards, along with women, LGBT persons, ethnic minorities and pretty much anyone that does not look like them. Think, perhaps, the Farage Arms.

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said The Beard Friendly Pub is about beards of course, but it is also about diversity, about welcoming all comers who like a drink and making them feel welcome. It is modern Britain, not the 1950s version preferred by a few.