Family's 'pub at home' in New Addington beats the smoking ban
THE days of being able to enjoy a cigarette and a drink at your favourite pub are a thing of the past.
But Michael Castle has rebelled against the smoking ban by setting up a bar at home where his family, friends and neighbours are free to light-up with gin and tonic in hand.
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CRPM20110201G Wk05 Nikki
Pirbright Crescent, New Addington, CR0 0RT.
Michael Castle has set up a bar in his house where people can smoke - Portrait of Michael sitting at the bar smoking a cigar.
Photographer Paul Martyniuk paul.martyniuk@essnmedia.co.uk Croydon Advertiser 020 8760 7630
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CRPM20110201G Wk05 Nikki
Pirbright Crescent, New Addington, CR0 0RT.
Michael Castle has set up a bar in his house where people can smoke - Portrait of Michael sitting at the bar smoking a cigar.
Photographer Paul Martyniuk paul.martyniuk@essnmedia.co.uk Croydon Advertiser 020 8760 7630
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CRPM20110201G Wk05 Nikki
Pirbright Crescent, New Addington, CR0 0RT.
Michael Castle has set up a bar in his house where people can smoke - Portrait of Michael sitting at the bar smoking a cigar.
Photographer Paul Martyniuk paul.martyniuk@essnmedia.co.uk Croydon Advertiser 020 8760 7630
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NO BAN HERE: Michael Castle has set up a bar in his house where people can smoke
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Even though the New Addington teenager never took up the habit himself, he wanted his tavern – Spirits in the Alley – to cater for all his guests' needs.
The 19-year-old from Pirbright Crescent said: "My mum decided we should do something quite out-there with our back room, so we transformed it into a bar.
"It's the only bar left in the UK where you can smoke and there is no closing time.
"My mum's best friend Maggie has stayed till 3 or 4am before – she's a trooper.
"With plenty of whisky and Irish music she's away with the fairies."
Michael's regulars include his 70-year-old grandma Josie, uncle Tony, mum Debbie and brother Danny, along with all of their friends.
He continued: "It's the perfect bar. You've got your spirits, your stool, your vanity mirror and your atmosphere.
"Plus you have the comfort of being at home and not worrying about buses, trains and trams to get home.
"I'm very much for the ban, but I think my family do miss being able to smoke and drink indoors too, so they can do that here without being tossed into the alley in the freezing cold."
The rules of the pub are simple: everyone brings their own booze.
Michael said: "Loads of people have been in just to see it.
But while Michael's bar has gone down well with his locals, the NHS has been less than enthusiastic.
Joint director of public health for NHS Croydon, Dr Peter Brambleby, said: "In Croydon, smoking-related illnesses kill about 400 people every year. In addition, smoking-related illness costs the NHS in Croydon more than £7 million every year and leads to additional burdens on health services at a time when cost pressures are greater than ever."
Anyone interested in giving up smoking can visit the website www.croydon.nhs.uk/smoking
42 Comments
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by Anthony Miller, Chavdon
Monday, February 07 2011, 10:16PM
“Is that THE Mr Castle what stood in the General Election? I'm glad he's found something more fun to do ... I wonder if Mr Pelling's been round?”
by Arfur Towcrate, Staffycher
Monday, February 07 2011, 9:06PM
“Pubs are closing because
1. some of them are fleapits used only by undesirables or people with no sense of taste when it comes to booze, food, surroundings or company
2. the government taxes booze sold in pubs too much
3. the government doesn't tax booze sold in supermarkets enough
4. supermarkets sell booze so cheaply it is cheaper to drink at home
5. some brewers force pub landlords to buy their booze from them at inflated prices
If you read reports published by the Campaign for Real Ale or the Institute for Public Policy Research, the kinds of reasons cited above are the ones they quote for the decline of pubs in this country - nothing do with smoking.”
by Richard III, Victorian Croydon
Monday, February 07 2011, 2:05PM
“The smoking ban is draconian! It should be down to the landlord to decide if smoking should be allowed or not.
And what happened to the droves of people that said they would come back to the pubs once smoking was banned? They didnt turn up and pubs are closing up and down the country as a result!”
by Anon, croydon
Monday, February 07 2011, 9:55AM
“No thanks Arfur.”
by Arfur Towcrate, Staffycher
Monday, February 07 2011, 9:43AM
“@ Anon - you don't have to take my word for it - http://info.cancerresearchuk.org/healthyliving/smokingandtobacco/ tells all
BTW, if you publish your name and address, I'll buy 200 of your favourite brand and send them to you.”
by RobinHood, Thieves Wood,Sherwood
Monday, February 07 2011, 7:59AM
“I visited a friend (non smoker) in a dedicated cancer hospital and was greeted by a large poster in the corridor which proclaimed '20% of lung cancer was caused through smoking' It omitted to tell me what the other 80% was caused by!!!
Smoking was once a national pastime in Spain with smokers staring at a young age,at the time Spain had the lowest heart disease rate in Europe and we were all being urged to embrace the Mediterranean diet.This appeared to comprise of cheap wine and lager,fatty pork and its bi products,fags and cigars,lots of undersized fish and tons of fruit and veg.
All changed when the junk food market
arrived in the Med.
Could this be the real cause of all the health problems one wonders?”
by Anon, croydon
Sunday, February 06 2011, 9:54PM
“Arfur Towcrate
Care to enlighten us then, in how it does cause cancer?”
by Arfur Towcrate, Staffycher
Sunday, February 06 2011, 9:27PM
“@ Anon So smoking doesn't cancer, eh? Cobblers.
@ CarolT - And it's all a government conspiracy? Double cobblers”
by haa haa, croydon
Sunday, February 06 2011, 7:08PM
“Make your mind Patricia, first of all its smokers, now its rough times with tattoos and earrings. Whats next eh?”
by CarolT, WI US
Sunday, February 06 2011, 6:30PM
“The anti-smokers commit flagrant scientific fraud by ignoring more than 50 studies which show that human papillomaviruses cause at least 1/4 of non-small cell lung cancers. Smokers and passive smokers are more likely to have been exposed to this virus for socioeconomic reasons. And the anti-smokers' studies are all based on lifestyle questionnaires, so they're cynically DESIGNED to blame tobacco for all those extra lung cancers that are really caused by HPV. And they commit the same type of fraud with every disease they blame on tobacco.
http://www.smokershistory.com/hpvlungc.htm
And, all their so-called "independent" reports were ring-led by the same guy, Jonathan M. Samet, including the Surgeon General Reports, the EPA report, the IARC report, and the ASHRAE report, and he's now the chairman of the FDA Committee on Tobacco. He and his politically privileged clique exclude all the REAL scientists from their echo chamber. That's how they make their reports "unanimous!"
http://www.smokershistory.com/SGlies.html
For the government to commit fraud to deprive us of our liberties is automatically a violation of our Constitutional rights to the equal protection of the laws, just as much as if it purposely threw innocent people in prison. And for the government to spread lies about phony smoking dangers is terrorism, no different from calling in phony bomb threats.”