Licensee: “Mobile phone users like smokers”

Steve Tyler of the Gin Tub said: “We could put the smoking area with the mobile phone area so the addicts can be in there together.”

No Wi-Fi

The Faraday cage is a metal screen used to block electric fields, so customers are unable to use their phones inside the bar and have to go outside to make a call or text.

Bar co-founder Tyler explained that they don’t give out their Wi-Fi password either.

He said: “We have put a cage in our suspended ceiling so the signal can’t get in because we wanted people to sit and talk to those they are with rather than be on their phones. I think it will catch on.”

Social media

Tyler thinks the issue is wider than people just making phone calls: “It is social media that is the problem - checking Facebook, replying to emails, and all the other things you shouldn’t be doing. We are trying to create a situation where people can’t sit with their phones, they have to talk to each other.

“When you go out socially you don’t need social media, it is a hindrance. The art of chatting up has gone thanks to dating websites.”

The bar co-founder explained that the concept has gone down well with customers since it started at the weekend. “It has been really popular and people have said it is a great idea.”

But the Hove-based venue doesn’t cut off communication altogether. “We do have telephones on the tables, so you can call other tables and people can always ring the bar if they need to speak with you.”