I've just been to a local village event which attracts quite a few people from outside the area, and while there i went into one of the pubs and walked to the bar as normal, only to turn round and notice that a single formal queue had formed at the corner at other end.
When did that become a thing? I have drunk here for years and never seen anything like it, either here or any pub I've been in.
Very odd.
I always ignore queues in pubs and bars. It’s a bar!! Long for a reason. People are so ridiculous.
I didn't half get the evils from some of those I've never seen in there before, as well.
It's a thing in my local Weatherspoons not in any of the other pubs that I very occasionally go to but that could be because I tend to be there in the middle of the afternoon
I didn't half get the evils
Stick with it. Ignore them.
In my experience, the people who queue at pub bars (invariably tourists) instead of opting for the usual approach, where all the regulars know the correct etiquette, invariably go on to ask if there’s a wine list and if it’s possible to get a pot of Earl Grey and a decaffe latte*.
In any sane drinking establishment this should immediately get you barred
Like integra the staff in my local know all the regulars and will have the appropriate pint sat on the bar by the time you reach it (without queuing)
* no and no
I've just been to a local village event which attracts quite a few people from outside the area, and while there i went into one of the pubs and walked to the bar as normal, only to turn round and notice that a single formal queue had formed at the corner at other end.
When did that become a thing? I have drunk here for years and never seen anything like it, either here or any pub I've been in.
Very odd.
I think the bit about a “local village event which attracts quite a few people from outside the area” might be a bit of a clue…
I adjourn to a small local village hostelry after I finish archery on Tuesday and Thursday evenings, which often coincides with the village cricket and tennis matches finishing, and, possibly unsurprisingly, there’s a bunch of people who aren’t locals queuing up at the bar for drinks! How very dare they!
Whilst my academic career at University in Nottingham was less than stellar, I did develop an awesome bar presence. I could get served 2 or 3 times while some of my mates were dicking about at back of the scrum waving a tenner at the barmaid. And the ability to carry 4 pints without a tray. Life skills.
The worst thing is a bar where the staff say "who's next?" They should always know who is next no matter how many people are at the bar.
It started happening around Covid. I tend to ignore it and is someone says something I counter with “we’re British, you know we don’t queue at the bar” or when someone says there’s a queue I go with “yes, ridiculous isn’t it?”.
Seems to defuse the situation and people move forward.
I had to demand* to be served when at the bar at a gig recently. I'd patiently waited my turn at the bar, but the barman then served two people who had a arrived after me. He seemed to be serving from just one part of the bar, which might be a consequence of people queuing.
* I wasn't too obnoxious, a simple "No, I'm next" was enough.
One of the main causes are bars with the card machines at fixed locations on the bar, so you have to move to it to pay. Essentially its a till, and people end up queuing at it. They tend to appear in stereotypical chain pubs
I think this thread shows there's always a queue at a decent bar, but it's people (and staff) who all know who was there before and after them rather than being stood in a line. Those that can't or won't adhere to the informal queue need to learn some manners and go to a place where they stand in line.
About 5 or so years ago, may be around covid time. But talking to my pub going lad, it is frequently a thing now in busy pubs, sometimes several queues perpendicular to the bar with a staff member for each bit of bar, sometimes one queue and each staff picks the next one off the front.
Sometimes it's an old style scrum, but if you haven't grown up with that if you don't know the system and it's a genuine free for all, it does create a bit of a potential for trouble in a busy city pub on a Sat night.
As my lad pointed out, by queuing you get served in turn, no faster or slower than the scrum if it's working properly and the staff have a mental note of the queue or the punters. The only people who lose out are those that are good at the scrum - or in other words those that are good at pushing in. And who often could benefit from a slightly slower intake anyway.
Yes, pubs have evolved. They also serve food, and don't allow smoking. Why do we hanker after some of the old ways and not the others?
I’d accept an orderly queue at one point of the bar for anyone who is ordering a drink that requires more than two liquids to be put into the glass. We’ve all been there, being polite when asked who’s next and you say ‘they are’ then the 6 drink cocktail order comes in!
From my recent experience drinking in busy city centre bars, a queue forms at the nearest point to the entrance and just attracts more people, maybe 4 or 5 people deep. Elsewhere at the bar, only ever one or two deep. So rather than just diving for the bar. I walk an extra few steps and get a £7 pint much quicker. Oh.
there’s a bunch of people who aren’t locals queuing up at the bar for drinks! How very dare they!
They are entitled to, but that isn’t the traditional way that you wait to be served in a pub in the uk. Though as cougar said, the polite and right thing to do is to not jump the line.
and to answer the op’s question, who knows? It is possibly behaviour learned from ordering a coffee and waiting in a second awkward queue waiting for your name to be called. Which now has me thinking that it’s something to do with not employing enough bar staff…
“traditional” may sound antagonistic in these times. Usual is probably a better adjective
It's a bit of a weird one, on thinking. We are British and we love a queue - hell, to get into a club here there's even a queue to join the queue (queue on the street spills into road so there's another holding queue in a car park at the back and the doorstaff send people from the back queue to the front from time to time so it stays manageable)
Is there anywhere else where a queue isn't the traditional/usual way? I'm not even sure on etiquette queuing for a check out in a Tesco Express...often seems to be a queue but no-one's using the self checkouts, so I'll ask if I'm OK to in case I offend. In a pub - nah, you snooze you lose mate, the one with the best eye catch technique wins.
Another feature of the pub queue (and I realise different for a vertical drinking establishment in a City on Friday vs the Dog and Duck in your village on a 'nip out for a quick one' on Tuesday) is that it forms because pub rules state that while there you must NEVER have an empty glass. As soon as you finish someone leaps up and calls 'same again' and if they can't get served at the bar at that exact moment then it's a terrible thing. I don't drink any more and rarely go into a pub, but often meet a mate for a coffee and if we're having a refill, and there's a queue at the counter then we'll - you know - wait until it's died down a bit and then go and reorder. You'd be thrown out of a pub for that kind of thing, wasting valuable drinking time.
Jeez, if on a bar crawl we'd even send scouts ahead to get the next round in so that the slowest and least capable drinkers were afforded no down time. Finish that one off, Gav, there's another one already waiting at the Star for you!
One of the main causes are bars with the card machines at fixed locations
This happened to me at one of the locals I used to go to . You place your order with a fella standing at one end of the bar who takes your money and the 'order' gets sent to the barman who then gets your drink for you. While you stand at the bar waiting, other folks come to the bar and ask the barman for a pint and he sends them to to the aforementioned fella - it's very odd, don't go there anymore.
Personally I prefer an orderly queue and being 50 years old I know the tradition and it's always been shit IMO! Tall blokes who are waving 20's get served first or ladies on a prettyness scale, shit system, very out dated.
I was decent at the bar scrum, not tall but well built and pretty strong so could hold people back with a well placed should or elbow. But it was a rubbish unfair system that always had the possibility to end in a fight.
Give me a nice queue, and let me sit down with my pint and some scratchings for the dog....
In fact, bring back COVID style order at the table, and employ some more kids to deliver my beer!
there’s a bunch of people who aren’t locals queuing up at the bar for drinks! How very dare they!
They are entitled to, but that isn’t the traditional way that you wait to be served in a pub in the uk. Though as cougar said, the polite and right thing to do is to not jump the line.
and to answer the op’s question, who knows? It is possibly behaviour learned from ordering a coffee and waiting in a second awkward queue waiting for your name to be called. Which now has me thinking that it’s something to do with not employing enough bar staff…
Yep, although queues are uncommon in pubs, I’d just hop on the end,traditions aren’t always the best way to do things and are subject to change.
As long as you get your beer who cares 🙂
My technophobe friend who is older than his ages quickly took to using the spoons app when he realised they’d just bring it over to you.
You get a tiny queue at our local micro bar, as, you've guessed it, it's not very big. Can only take two at the bar.
Personally I prefer an orderly queue and being 50 years old I know the tradition and it's always been shit IMO!
Well put. I'm in exactly the same boat and vastly prefer a good queue over the free for all at the bar. Even as a kid, wading into a crowd of people waiting to be served according to the bar staff's whims felt like a total pain.
One of the worst parts of the 'traditional' bar scrum at a busy bar is attempting to chat to the person you are with and simultaneously make eye contact with the bar staff. Then when you've got served trying to extract yourself with 4 pints clutched in your hands and trying not to bump into all the people who will simultaneously be pissed off if you spill anything on them and refuse to move an inch in case they loose their place in the not queue.
A queue at one end the bar so everyone knows where they are so you can have a nice chat whilst you shuffle forwards and also leaving most of the bar as a place to stand or sit seems way better than the traditional method yet bizarrely not something I'd ever considered until I opened this thread.
The shape of pubs generally doesn’t play well with long queues perpendicular to the bar. Perhaps sitting at the bar should be replaced with using it to queue along?
If you happen to like to sit (or stand) at the bar, do you have to leave your spot and go to the back of the queue each time you want a drink?
Also, how busy are the pubs you guys are going to? If I walked into a pub and found there was a 'scrum' at the bar I would just find somewhere quieter. Can't be bothered being around that many people at once.
If you happen to like to sit (or stand) at the bar, do you have to leave your spot and go to the back of the queue each time you want a drink?
If you happen to like to sit (or stand) at the bar, that's absolutely fine, but you could have the decency to **** off somewhere else when it's three deep.
If you happen to like to sit (or stand) at the bar, do you have to leave your spot and go to the back of the queue each time you want a drink?
Thst tradition will also end. No standing, just table seating
If you happen to like to sit (or stand) at the bar, that's absolutely fine, but you could have the decency to **** off somewhere else when it's three deep.
Possibly we just have different pictures in our minds of what a 'busy' pub is.
For me, I left three deep bars behind in my early thirties. And in those kinds of bars, yeah, good luck instituting a queuing system.
I'm just struggling to picture a bar that is so busy that a queue is needed and yet so orderly that a queue could actually form.
Also, if it's three deep at the bar then unless your pub is very long the queue is going to either have to go out the door or they are going to have to put one of those airport security snake queue things in place, so everyone has to walk back and forth five times before they get to the bar.
Like I said, maybe I just drink in very different places to you guys,
Keep hearing this is a thing, yet to see it.
Keep hearing this is a thing, yet to see it.
I did. 2006. A bar in Heathrow Airport.
Very much amateur hour.
I'm finding it a breath of fresh air to visit some non-chain pubs while I'm on holiday in Ireland. It makes me realise how flippin' many pubs are part of brewery/chain, and basically are not the pubs of old....
I had no idea so many regulars from The Slaughered Lamb were also regulars on the forum
The worst thing is a bar where the staff say "who's next?" They should always know who is next no matter how many people are at the bar.
That. There is a queue but it's conceptual and entirely contained within the barman's/barmaid's head, it should not be a physical thing.
For me, I left three deep bars behind in my early thirties. And in those kinds of bars, yeah, good luck instituting a queuing system.
Peak STW - person who hasn't been in those kinds of pubs for decades is still the authority on how they work.
In reality - those kinds of pubs may actually be the ones most likely to have evolved into queuing behaviours. In spite of not being shaped for it, or indeed the landlords or bar staff discouraging it. God forbid but some of the punters actually like it!
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2026/jan/31/publicans-bemused-single-file-queue-trend-pubs
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2026/feb/06/pub-queues-have-we-finally-crossed-a-line
Again from the PoV of my lad, but similar to the letters in the link above. Now, he may be atypical, in that he is usually slightly on edge during a night out, being careful to avoid any confrontation or flashpoint, but for him in a busy bar, if it's quite clear what the queue is and when it's his turn to be served that's one problem avoided and hence more comfortable.
Are we absolutely certain they're queues and not slow motion conga lines?
Peak STW - person who hasn't been in those kinds of pubs for decades is still the authority on how they work.
A decade, actually. Not decades. I'm not quite that old yet 🙂
I did end my post with 'maybe I just drink in very different places to you guys" because I acknowledge that people's geographic experiences may vary. And, of course, the cultural experience may vary.
The places I used to go that involved bar scrums tended to also have a dancefloor and people on a variety of substances. Like I said, you could try to corral people into an orderly queue but it might end up causing more problems than it solves. But who knows, maybe all these sober Gen-Zers are more predictable (wouldn't surprise me).
But, like I said, I never came across a pub that needed a queueing system. And if the place was busy enough to need a queuing system then there wouldn't have been enough room without the queue snaking out the door and round the corner.
I get that some ND people might prefer the order of a queue, but the technology now exists that means you can often order from your table and have the staff bring your drinks over.
Other ND people prefer the rules they grew up with and get incredibly uncomfortable with a change to the accepted way of doing things, especially since it has always worked absolutely fine. And if it didn't work absolutely fine in a particular pub then there are always other pubs.
A decade, actually.
Makes sense, as the article and others suggest, I think Covid was where this changed.
And often it isn't one snakey queue, in a big bar there are several shorter queues at each service point just like in a supermarket or shop, so you have the challenge of trying not to pick the one with the massive order of cocktails just the same as you try to predict which old lady in the supermarket queue has a load of out of date and unscannable coupons 😉 Not totally different to the scrum except more discipline of the front and back of it.
I don't know it's solely a ND thing, some people just like the comfort that some pissed up headcase isn't going to push to the front with their pointy elbows and strong shoulders, and then 'yeah, what you going to do, it's a ****ing pub not a coffee shop' if you point it out. Which I have seen way too many times in the 'good old days' of bar scrums.
That. There is a queue but it's conceptual and entirely contained within the barman's/barmaid's head, it should not be a physical thing.
A truly dying art unfortunately. I always prided myself on my staffs' abilities to manage the 'queue' appropriately...in fact, it was included in day 1 training for any new staff...no mobile phones behind the bar, there's never nothing to do, and always watch for the order folks arrive at the bar, oh, and acknowledge everyone (in your zone on very busy 'scrum' nights - cos city centre venues and all that) so they know they've been seen.
Nearly 20 years ago since I left that game, and I must admit I do prefer a quieter life these days - table service is much more civilised! (Plus, I'm old and CBA with the bar scrum thing since I left the trade)
never seen anything other than the virtual queue around here
