Mobile pub visits Surrey care home to celebrate easing of lockdown

A pop-up pub has brought drinks to a Surrey care home after lockdown restrictions were eased on Monday.

CHD Living’s Kings Lodge in Byfleet, Surrey, brought a mobile beer van, pool table, singer and stilt-walker to its residents on the day that pubs across England reopened for outdoor service.

Resident Colin Primrose, 87, said the activities on Monday “felt like a return to my younger days”.

“I had a great afternoon playing pool with a pint,” he said.

“It’s been so long since I last had a beer, and it was lovely.

“It felt like a return to my younger days and a good way to celebrate lockdown restrictions being relaxed.”

Shaleeza Hasham, head of hospitality and communications at CHD Living, said: “Yesterday’s easing of lockdown restrictions is monumental and provides some much-needed hope to both the hospitality and care sectors, which have faced restrictions for over a year now.

“We wanted to involve our residents in the celebrations taking place across the country, but unable to get down to the beer gardens themselves, we thought we would bring the beer garden to them instead!

“It was lovely to see everyone outside socialising and enjoying a pint together as we take this positive step forward in life returning to normal.”

As part of the nationwide easing of lockdown on Monday, residents in care homes are now able to welcome two face-to-face visitors indoors, with infants and children not counted as one of the two.