Relaxing in an armchair with a pint of bitter in the Dog & Bull, Croydon

BY BILL LACY

So, there is light at the end of the tunnel.

On April 12, hospitality venues can open outdoors (and takeaway beers can be sold) with indoor operating by May 17.

If all goes according to plan, social distancing will end by June 21.

It still may not be enough for the survival of all pubs of course, with many places already defeated by the pandemic (including many well-run establishments), which has led to calls that this reopening plan is too cautious.

As many people are already planning a week of ancient Rome-style debauchery for that magical week in June, I prefer a moment of quiet contemplation over a pint, perhaps in an armchair.

I survey the wreckage of Covid behind us. But there is no doubt this will be a great moment as well as we restore the normality of our lives. Or will we?

I fear that Covid has changed the landscape permanently.

Sometimes things occur to me that I don’t know if others have thought about.

For example, what will happen to lunchtime drinking? Many workplaces will not go back to everybody in the office even after June 21.

Lunchtime drinking divides opinion, but even the most po-faced surely cannot begrudge the common man or woman a quiet little midday pint on Monday, June 21.

If I am back in the office, I will make my way to the Dog & Bull in Croydon’s historic Surrey Street market.

This must be one of the oldest pubs in Croydon. For years I avoided it, for no other reason that some nebulous prejudice.

Then one lunchtime I found myself in there, sipping a superb pint of Harvey’s Sussex Best Bitter.

The Dog & Bull was everything I thought it would be: quiet, dark, old man-ish, comfortable.

There are indeed armchairs, beneath pictures of the Queen Mum. Afterwards, I went there in between lockdowns and the pub had a completely different feel to it.

Some of this was to do with Covid measures of course. There were one-way systems and, being technophobic, I had to write my name and phone number in a book (what has happened to all those books by the way?).

The pint was as well-conditioned as usual, but this time I was somewhat intimidatingly served by a lady in a visor.

These were in the days when everybody was getting used to how to behave.

Places would veer between overzealous enforcement (“you’re too near the bar”) and lackadaisical shoulder-shrugging; the Dog & Bull had a sign which simply read “Follow the guidelines”, probably the most unenthusiastic Covid instruction I had ever seen.

But something else had changed as well. It was no longer the old man’s pub I remembered. It was far younger, and even the bar staff were different and fresher-faced, as if actors had taken over the running of the pub for the day.

I realised it was because I was in there at a different time of day, and the reason I hadn’t seen many people in there before was because everyone had disappeared into the superb beer garden in the back, which is apparently the largest pub garden in Croydon.

If I’m not in the bar at lunchtime on June 21, I’ll be in the pub garden on April 12.

Dog & Bull 24-25 Surrey Street, Croydon CR0 1RG