Yes, children in pubs are annoying. But Britain needs more shared spaces between generations, not fewer.
This article was published on LBC on 28th March 2026. Read it on LBC here.
As any Walthamstow resident will agree, the best pub in the area is the Nag’s Head. Not because of their excellent range of beers, live music or skin-searing beer garden heat lamps, but because of their brilliant USP: No Children Allowed.
Walthamstow has a lot of young couples, so this pub is a sanctuary from the screams, cries, laughter and general disruption of young children. As one of the dozen or so childless people who live in this area, I have sought solace there on many occasions.
But when another pub, the Kenton in Hackney, decided to follow suit this week, I realised that child-free pubs are not, on balance, a good thing.
Yes, I have resorted to the Nag’s Head frequently, and spent many a happy evening there among other adults. But that was weak and selfish of me. Because, in the main – and especially in the daytime – pubs should be places where children and families are allowed to simply be, all together, without feeling like they are being rude or annoying.
Even if, sometimes, they are.
Our culture is remarkably intolerant to inter-generational mixers. We tut at unruly teenagers in children’s play areas. We cringe at middle aged men in nightclubs. We feel too self-conscious to dance when our aunties are sitting on the sidelines of a family function. Why must we silo ourselves?
In many European cultures generations mix more naturally, and it works. I spent the best part of a year living in Greece, where few spare a thought about whether their little one is an appropriate age for a late night running between tables at a busy taverna. Or for that matter, the right age to ride a moped along a perilous coastal road.
It’s common too to see the community elders relaxing with an ice cold red wine at the fringes of a celebration, quietly sharing in the merriment and showing no desire whatsoever to retreat for a horlicks an early night.
There is something wonderful about several generations sharing in the joy of music, wine and dancing. Can we not muster up a similar sense of bonhomie in the UK?
And so, although in my moments of weakness I am the first to frequent the ‘No Children Allowed’ pub – and the last one to dance at a family function if my gran and her sisters are sitting on the sidelines waiting for ‘the youngsters’ to perform – I want that to change.
I want children, teenagers, young adults, mums and dads, grandparents, all together, celebrating our shared love of music and of course booze. With J20 for the under 18s, obviously.
Its exactly this kind of cross-pollenating social life that will help us raise a new generation of more-or-less-functioning young people. We should not turn the pub into a zone of exclusion: a pandora’s box to be pilfered only when we are old enough to order our first legal Stella Artois.
Let children see how adults move around each other. Let teenagers understand how embarrassing the grown-ups get when they’ve had a few. And let worries about bed times and sleep routines be set aside once in a blue moon.
But if this vision of camaraderie and sharing is to work, then the terms must be clear in advance.
Because we all know how pushy parents can be, and how fervent they are in their desire to make every public space perfectly calibrated to the needs of their little darlings.
Your children are welcome into the adult domain of the pub, but they are not welcome to convert it into a wacky warehouse with beer taps. (Though I will concede that does sound quite fun.)
Children are welcome to play on the picnic benches outside, make towers out of beer mats and nap in the quiet corner behind the pool table. But there will not be a pram ‘parking area’, nor will there be children’s menus or colouring books. And absolutely no dinosaur/slide monstrosities dumped in the weed-ridden pub garden.
Pubs and children can mix, and there is something quaint and lovely about the idea of bored children occupying themselves in the bustle of a busy beer garden.
Our instinct might be to flock with those of our own age group, but there is much to be gained from tolerating the mild irritation of those who happen to be younger than ourselves.
Keep children in pubs, and let the next generation of healthy, sociable adults emerge.
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