Diamond Jubilee: Pubs at centre of the celebrations

The famous Otley Pub Club kicked off their Diamond Jubilee celebrations earlier this week by unveiling the town’s newly renamed pubs, all 17 of which will be called “the Queen Elizabeth” throughout the Jubilee. Members of the Pub Club joined landlady Karen Richardson, her grandson Tom and regulars at the White Swan, which was the first of the town’s pubs to hoist its new sign.

The name change, organised by Otley Pub Club, will form the backdrop to other events planned by Otley Town Council, Otley Town Partnership and Otley & District Chamber of Trade. The scheme echoes previous celebrations of major Royal events, with the town’s pubs all adopting the name “The Yorkshire Princess” to mark last year’s marriage of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, while the 1986 marriage of the Duke of York to Sarah Ferguson saw the town’s pubs adopt the name “The Prince Andrew.”

The Otley Pub Club was founded by All-Party Parliamentary Pub Group chairman, Greg Mulholland MP. “People up and down the country will be celebrating this once in a lifetime Diamond Jubilee, and what better way to do so than to raise a glass in a local community pub, said Mulholland.

“Considering the importance and history of pubs in Otley, and the success of similar events in the past, I hope people will joins us in Otley, enjoying a pint in one of the many great pubs.”

Managed pub chain Mitchells & Butlers is rolling out a number of events and promotions across all of its brands for the Jubilee weekend. Vintage Inns is offering an afternoon tea menu for £9.95 which will include a Vintage Summer cake created by Vintage Inns’ chefs, unveiled by Paul Hollywood of BBC2’s The Great British Bake-Off. For every piece sold, 15p will be donated to Marie Curie Cancer Care.

Toby Carvery will have a menu of British favourites inspired by the Jubilee, including Coronation Turkey Salad and Victoria Sponge, whilst Crown Carveries is to treat any couples celebrating 60 years of marriage to a free carvery between Monday 4th and Saturday 9th June. The Great Jubilee menu on offer at Village Pub & Kitchen is to include beer battered haddock, grilled fillet of sea trout; marinated chicken supreme and apple and rhubarb crumble.
A variety of special drinks will also be on offer. Ember Inns and Sizzling Pubs are taking part in the celebrations by supporting and organising local community Jubilee activities in pubs across the UK, and Browns has various special menus on offer throughout the weekend.

Paul Taylor, landlord of the Rock Country Inn & Restaurant, in Blackwood, south Wales, has painted the decking of his pub with a huge Union Jack for the Queen’s Jubilee. Taylor told the PMA: “I looked at the shape of the decking and it was about Union Jack-shape.” Taylor said it had taken him 20 hours and four tins of paint to complete the job, at a price of about £250. He will also be hosting his traditional Tinker Taylor Triumphant Tapas night as part of the celebrations, where “Royal Food” will be on the menu.

The Lounge in St Ives, Cambridgeshire will hold its traditional charity DJ event over the Jubilee weekend this year. 29 DJs will play one-hour sets on both floors of the venue with all the money raised going to the local MS centre. Licensee Andrew Lea’s aunt was diagnosed with the disease seven years ago. He said: “Last year we raised around £400 pounds, but this year we are hoping to do far better than that with volunteers with charity buckets being on site and asking for donations.”

Gary Nicolls, manager of Reflex in Croydon received a letter from the Queen (attached) after he wrote inviting her to the bar to let her hair down after the Diamond Jubilee. Nicolls said: “I was over the moon to get a letter back from the Queen and she now joins my list of celebrity acquaintances who include some of the cast members of Eastenders. As there is no specific mention of the invite in the letter, I can only assume that she’s considering dates and will be logging onto reflexcroydon.co.uk to book her party very shortly!”.

Stonegate pub, the Old Swan in Liverpool, posted on its Facebook page to see if anyone wanted to ‘kidnap’ a cardboard cut-out of the Queen in order to raise money for women’s cancer charities. The person who took the cardboard Queen out for the best day would be given a prize at the pub’s Jubilee celebrations. The cardboard Queen attended a building site, went to the bingo, helped at the allotment and attended The X Factor auditions in Liverpool. She was also due to go to a Guns ‘n’ Roses concert until her head fell off and was replaced with “a posh version” which attended a wedding as a bridesmaid.

Zoe Rodgers, licensee of the George Payne pub in Hove, east Sussex, is hosting a number of events over the Jubilee weekend to help bring the local community together. The pub is selling fish & chips at 10p per portion (while stocks last) tonight, to reflect what it would have cost in the 1950s, and breakfast will be on offer tomorrow morning with the pub to open early. The dog show at 2.30pm tomorrow will have one award for Best Royal Outfit, and will be followed by a Trifle-Eating contest at 7.30pm. The pub has ordered some giant board games for the garden to accompany Sunday’s charity raffle, and the celebrations will be topped off with a kid’s reggae disco and Caribbean bbq on Monday evening. There will also be offers on Pimm’s, Beefeater, and Crown Jewel Ale throughout the weekend, as well as vodka jelly. “We are in a community area so we felt like getting into the swing of things,” said Rodgers.

Everards have unveiled a limited edition Jubilee pint glass with all proceeds of sales from the commemorative pint glass going to Leicester charity Warning Zone. The Leicestershire brewery’s limited edition Jubilee pint glass costs £2 and is available to purchase at various Everards pubs and through the Everards online shop. The brewery has also launched its own Diamond Jubilee ale – a copper ale delivering a burst of tropical and citrus flavours – brewed from English grown Bodicea and Northern Brewer Hops.

Brunning & Price pub, the White Hart, in Chipstead, Surrey will run a range of 1950s dishes alongside its usual menu over the four days from 2 to 5 June. The pub will also issue ration books so customers can enjoy their first pint of beer or glass of wine wine at 1952 prices, but only if they pay for your drinks in old currency. Those who can’t get hold of some old currency will be able to buy their first drink for half the normal price by bringing in their ration book. Pub games including Bobbing for Apples, Hula Hoop competitions and Pin the Tail on the Donkey will also run with afternoon tea each afternoon to raise money for Sutton and Croydon Multiple Sclerosis.

St Austell, the Cornish brewer and pub operator, said orders through its telesales teams have "broken all records" for the bank holiday weekend. "People are all geared up for a big weekend," said head of marketing and communications Jeremy Mitchell.

"We did so well last year on the royal wedding and that brought the pub trade by surprise in Devon and Cornwall. This year people are really fired up for it."