A pub in Hampshire loves welcoming canine companions, but has recently banned children under 12 indefinitely due to “bad behaviour”.
Dog lover, Mop Draper is landlady of The Compass Inn, Hampshire. Earlier this year, Mop banned children six days a week but after a “rowdy” Father’s Day, decided to ban them entirely after receiving complaints.
The ban needed to be put in place to save her adult customers that visit the pub for a bit of “peace and quiet”. Children are said to have made “a lot of noise… it was just bad for all the rest of the people eating”. Mop added: “Other tables were complaining because they were shouting and screaming – it was just ghastly.”
On the other hand, dogs are loved in the pub and are welcomed in the restaurant, bars and garden. Mop and her dog Boris, started welcoming canine guests back in 2011 to support the business. Since then the pub have hosted doggy birthday parties and they’ve even rustled up doggy dinners for canine visitors. As well as that, they also organise group dog walks on the first Sunday of every month.
“So many people… started coming into the pub with their dogs and we are now widely known as the most dog-friendly pub in the Forest. “I can’t tell you how much it’s enhanced our trade.”
The decision to ban children fro the pub has sparked mixed reactions and a big debate online with previous customers arguing that the rule change is unacceptable.
Explaining the decision to bring in her initial child ban last year, she said: “We are a tiny pub, and when you have screaming children in here it can be utterly unbearable. We are very close to Paultons Park and we often get families in after a day there, and their kids are just exhausted so they start playing up. It spoils it for everyone. We have never promoted the pub as being a children-friendly one. There are hundreds of others they can go to.”
A sign outside the pub, states “Dogs welcome, children should be leashed.”
What are your thoughts?
Do you prefer a child-free pub visit? Or do you think they have just as much of a right to be there as the dogs? Let us know in the comments below.
