25/07/2026
A pub is never just a pub.
Today, The Jolly Coopers & Squiffy’s Restaurant Hampton - The Jolly Coopers in Hampton will celebrate 40 years under the care of Nick and Jane, and 300 years of being a pub! Quite something.
I have known the pub through several different stages of my own life, and it has remained what the very best British pubs have always been: a constant.
A place to celebrate a World Cup, an Olympic triumph or a coronation. A place to watch an ordinary Saturday football match become temporarily very important.
A place to meet friends, raise money for charity, listen to music, eat, laugh and feel part of something.
But also a place where you can sit quietly with a pint, say very little and think life through without anyone asking too much of you.
Over four decades, Nick and Jane have created far more than a successful hospitality business. They have made people feel safe, known and welcome. They have worked tirelessly for local charities and opened their doors again and again to the wider community.
They are, quite simply, exceptional British hosts.
This is why the campaign matters.
The debate about reducing VAT for hospitality is rightly about commercial survival, employment and keeping prices manageable. But it is also about recognising what we lose when a good local pub disappears.
We lose one of the few places where different generations and different parts of a community still naturally meet.
We lose history, character, informal support networks and shared memories.
We lose part of the social fabric of British life.
Today’s celebration will bring together music, food, fundraising, local organisations, neighbours, friends and quite a few highly decorated rubber ducks.
It will be joyful, slightly eccentric and truly local.
In other words, it will demonstrate exactly why pubs like The Jolly Coopers & Squiffy’s Restaurant Hampton - The Jolly Coopers are worth protecting.
Here’s to Nick and Jane, to 40 extraordinary years, and to a hospitality industry that deserves to be valued for everything it contributes — economically, culturally and socially.
Because a pub is never just a pub.
