‘Nobody should feel on their own’: How pubs are stepping up to tackle the UK’s loneliness epidemic

Alison Miller first stumbled across The Clifton Arms in Blackburn around eight years ago when her darts team needed somewhere to play. Overwhelmed by the warm welcome she received from the staff and customers, she began returning regularly and has now become a key member of the pub’s community. “It quickly became apparent this pub wasn’t just a pub,” says Alison.

She isn’t the only person who found warmth and friendship at ‘The Clifton’, as it’s fondly referred to. Alison recalls pensioners who’ve become widowed for whom the support from the pub’s community became a lifeline, and people who’ve moved to the area on their own who’ve made lifelong friends through The Clifton. “One young man, he’s around 18 years old, moved here after having issues in a different area. He didn’t know anyone but he was welcomed at The Clifton. He now does karaoke every week – he says he feels The Clifton is like his family,” says Alison.

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When Alison spoke with Big Issue, she had recently arrived back from a holiday abroad with 13 other people from The Clifton Arms community – a trip organised by Carole Davis, the pub’s landlady, who recognised that many older people in the area didn’t have anyone to go on holiday with.

Carole has run The Clifton Arms for 19 years. Having previously worked in local community volunteering, she explains that she now knows “around 95% of the people in the area”. Because of her volunteering experience, she’s aware of the role that a pub plays in helping people feel connected. “If you’ve got a problem, you can come in (to the pub) and talk to someone and you don’t even have to buy a drink. You can bring a problem and we’ll solve it. There’s a lot more people feel lonely than they used to – lots of people think they can manage,” Carole explains.

She describes The Clifton as “a small pub with the biggest heart”, and the work the pub does to support their community is tireless. There are regular live music events where people who don’t know anyone are encouraged to come, befriending services for isolated older people, and fundraisers for local mental health and women’s aid charities. Food at events is often free, people who haven’t been seen for a while are sent chocolates to cheer them up, and Carole even makes house calls to people in the community who are struggling.

“I don’t look at any of the work we do in the community as a task, as I’ve always felt that nobody should feel rejected or on their own,” says Carole.

Britain has been described as ‘the loneliness capital of Europe’. Around four million people in the UK are chronically lonely and over a decade of cuts to local services has only exacerbated loneliness levels. Northern cities were hit particularly hard by austerity measures and The Clifton’s home town of Blackburn has been named as one of the areas worst affected by the cuts.

Although pubs have always played key roles in their community, more and more locals are actively offering outreach and befriending services that would historically have been run by councils or local charities.

These locals include The Wellington, a village pub near Norfolk that runs ‘Meet Up Mondays’ events; a nationwide initiative where venues offer free food, drink and activities to help people make new friends. The pub’s landlord, Chris Samuels, grew up with The Wellington as his local. Now he owns the pub, he’s hyper-aware of how important its role in fostering community connection is. “Rural loneliness is huge. I’m trying to be a champion of people avoiding being at home,” says Chris.

There’s a particularly worrying trend of increased isolation in older men, a group who are less likely to admit to feeling lonely. It’s an issue that Chris recognised as being particularly acute in areas like his, and the pub now hosts regular breakfast clubs specifically for men to make new friends. “In village environments, if you don’t drink or play sport there aren’t many opportunities to meet other men,” Chris explains.

The role pubs play in alleviating loneliness recently went viral, after a Christmas advert from Charlie’s Bar in County Fermanagh racked up millions of views. The advert shows an isolated elderly man finding companionship at Charlie’s Bar by befriending a couple and their adorable dog. The heart-warming advert shows an all-too-common scenario and is based on co-owner Una Burns’ experience of what she’s seen while working in the pub.

“We wanted the advert to show how some people feel over Christmas. Since licensing has allowed, we’ve opened on Christmas Day and I’d often see people come in and the bar staff would be the only people they’d talk to that day,” says Una.

The ad highlights how pubs can help strangers connect over a drink and ends with the W.B Yeats quote; ‘There are no strangers here, only friends you haven’t met yet.’ The pub aims to live by this the whole year and runs jive classes, live music nights and ‘paint and pint’ evenings which are ideal for solo attendees nervous about going to a pub alone. “We run activities where you can be around people but it’s not noticeable if you’ve turned up on your own,” explains Una.

While pubs are firstly commercial businesses, their status as institutions for creating friendship and connection means they’re in a good position to step in when support services run by charities and councils disappear. Helping pubs take full advantage of this role is ‘Join Inn – last orders for loneliness,’ an initiative launched by Pub is the Hub, a not-for-profit that helps rural pubs diversify their services.

While Pub is the Hub firmly believe that “publicans are the real heroes in identifying services or activities that are needed in their local areas”, they help guide pubs who are unsure how to go about setting up services for their communities. Over two decades, they’ve helped hundreds of pubs run new services, including starting local craft groups, and launching gardens and allotments in pub grounds for gardening groups to care for.

There’s a growing awareness that pubs are so much more than just places to drink. While talking about The Clifton, Alison says she believes that pubs have become the new community centres. “People are having to make their own community support and I try to promote wherever I go that there are places that will welcome you with open arms.”

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