Wetherspoon pubs in Edinburgh reveal plans to reopen after lockdown

One of the UK’s biggest pub chains, JD Wetherspoon, has drawn up plans to safely reopen its pubs in Edinburgh.

The popular chain - which has eight pubs in and around the Capital - will open when it has the official go-ahead from the Scottish Government.

Pubs were forced to close on March 20, four days before the country went into lockdown due to the Covid-19 crisis.

Wetherspoons has now announced it is investing £11million into new measures to reopen all 875 of its UK pubs.

The Standing Order in George Street in Edinburgh.

The plans come after the chain was widely condemned for the treatment of its 43,000 staff as the lockdown started, with company boss Tim Martin reportedly advising his workers to seek employment in supermarkets before the UK Government stepped in with its furlough scheme.

In a bid to ensure social distancing, the new measures will also result in the employment of two full time staff per pub, slightly more for bigger pubs, who will regularly clean surfaces and touch points throughout the pubs.

It has undertaken extensive employee consultation and has also consulted with many of its suppliers and contractors, as well as referring to UK Hospitality guidelines.

The company said each of its locations would have an average of ten hand sanitisers and one full-time member of staff devoted to regularly cleaning surfaces and touch points.

Safety measures will be put in place at Wetherspoons.

It will provide gloves, masks and protective eyewear to employees if they choose to use it along with glass screens in some areas and around cash-points and staff will hand over all drinks holding the base of the glass.

Customers will be encouraged to pay by app or contactless, but pubs will still accept cash payments, it said.

They will be open their usual opening hours, which on average is 8am to midnight (Sunday to Thursday) and 8am to 1am (Friday and Saturday).

All staff will receive a full briefing and training on the new way of running the pubs.

Jaikrishnan Vamalachandran, manager at The Standing Order in George Street, said: “At present the government have not confirmed any reopening date for pubs.

“However, it is important that we are prepared for any announcement.

“We have spent a number of weeks consulting with staff who work in our pubs, as well as area managers in order to draw up our plans.

“The safety of staff and customers is paramount.”

Wetherspons pubs in and around the Capital are The Standing Order and The Alexander Graham Bell, both in George Street, The Playfair in Omni Centre, The Booking Office in Waverley Bridge, The Caley Picture House in Lothian Road, The White Lady in St John’s Road, Corstorphine, The Foot of the Walk in Constitution Street, Leith and The Blacksmith’s Forge in Newmills Road, Dalkeith.

A Message from the Editor

Thank you for reading this story on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

In order for us to continue to provide high quality and trusted local news on this free-to-read site, I am asking you to also please purchase a copy of our newspaper.

Our journalists are highly trained and our content is independently regulated by IPSO to some of the most rigorous standards in the world. But being your eyes and ears comes at a price. So we need your support more than ever to buy our newspapers during this crisis.

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our local valued advertisers - and consequently the advertising that we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you helping us to provide you with news and information by buying a copy of our newspaper.

Thank you

Joy Yates

Editorial Director