Swansea pubs facing crisis in lockdown

THE hatch at The Westbourne will open this weekend for Sunday lunch – probably the only thing landlord Mark Lingwood can do to generate income.

He and his partner Sophie Valerio will be up early on Sunday to do the cooking.

“We’ll need to do about 150 lunches to break even,” said Mr Lingwood.

The popular Swansea pub is among thousands whose business model has been decimated by the coronavirus.

Inside, tables and chairs are stacked up as the couple give the place a deep clean.

The venue’s 20 staff have been furloughed, but Mr Lingwood said The Westbourne did not qualify for Government-backed grants of up to £25,000 because of its high rateable value.

He has applied for separate funding under a Welsh Government scheme.

He said his big worry at present was the £6,000 per month rent he said the brewery want him to pay, although he said it had offered a deferral.

“Other little bills keep trickling in – electricity, the phone line,” he said.

With social distancing requirements likely to be needed for “really quite a long period”, according to the UK’s chief medical officer Chris Whitty, the prospects for pubs, restaurants and music venues look dismal.

Mr Lingwood has run the Brynmill pub for 13 years, but wonders if he will have to hand over the lease.

“We are trying our best to stay afloat, but long term it’s not looking good,” he said.

“But I am holding out some hope that something will come up.

“We’ve got a good group of staff – we don’t want to lose them.”

Mr Lingwood is also offering take-out bottled beer and wine.

The cask and keg beer, he said, was “still in the cellar, getting out of date”.

He added: “Everyone is in the same boat. Our suppliers are multi-million companies and they’re on their knees.”

In Swansea’s maritime quarter is The Queen’s Hotel – a fixture since 1892.

Former landlord Gary Owen, who still works there and lives above the venue, said he had seen nothing like the current disruption in nearly 40 years of working in the trade.

“Nothing can compare to this,” he said.

“The Luftwaffe could not close The Queens in the Three Nights’ Blitz , but Covid-19 has done it.”

He said the pub was still appealing a 70% hike in business rates from 2017, and that beer sales had dropped sharply in recent times as young people in particular, in his view, had changed their drinking habits.

Mr Owen wondered if pubs might be able to carry out airport-style temperature testing of customers to help them end the lockdown.

At present, regulars from The Queens meet up on video calls and are carrying on with the Sunday pub quiz remotely.

“We’ve got a very loyal customer base,” said Mr Owen.

“Many of them are retired, and their social world has been torn up.”

He added: “The hospitality industry in Britain creates a phenomenal amount of money and jobs.

“Hopefully, scientists will find the underbelly of this virus.

“I’m hoping they will say real ale will get rid of it! The phrase is ‘dream on’.

“I can’t see a quick end to it.”

Landlady Becky Holohan, of The Railway Inn, Killay, has her glass half full.

“We have got rates relief and a small business grant,” she said.

“Swansea Council own the building and the car park, and they’ve stopped charging rent.

“And I’ve been putting money aside for a while.”

Miss Holohan said her six members of staff had been furloughed.

“Most of them are either retired, or 18 and living at home,” she said.

She used to be assistant manager at The Smoke Haus restaurant in the city’s Wind Street, before taking over the pub last October.

“This would have been my first summer,” she said.

“It’s been great so far. It’s a community pub – everyone knows everyone.”

Miss Holohan said the industry was going to be “hit massively”.

“We will just wait and see, and hope for the best.”

Meanwhile, beer festivals are also casualties of Covid-19.

Swansea Camra’s annual event at the Brangwyn Hall this August has been cancelled.

The campaign group’s Swansea chairman Donough Shanahan said Camra organised around 200 festivals nationally each year.

“All of them more or less to the start of August have been cancelled,” he said.

He said Camra’s new website, Pulling Together, listed venues which were still offering services and initiatives, while another campaign was putting pressure on the big breweries to cancel pub rents.

Looking to the future, Mr Shanahan said: “It’s something that a lot of us are worrying about – how many pubs will survive? How many will open?

“My theory is that pubs will reopen and see how they do – that’s if they reopen.

“If there is a bounce back, it’s probably going to be two years down the road.”