Pub Giant JD Wetherspoon Defends Decision To Refuse To Serve The Homeless

The pub chain has clarified its position on allowing homeless people into its venues – after two rough sleepers were asked to leave one of their establishments.

Homeless friends Christopher and Ryan had been offered a cooked breakfast from a woman they met whilst sleeping rough in Truro, Cornwall at the weekend. Having gratefully accepted the generous offer from Jenny Rimmer they entered the Wetherspoon branch in the town. But, before they could order, staff told them to leave and that they weren’t welcome, claiming the men were ‘abusive and aggressive’ towards staff and that was the reason for them being told to leave.

As Liverpool has a large number of Wetherspoon pubs across the city, the Liverpool Echo contacted the pub giant to find out if it has a firm policy on this subject and how it would react to any of Liverpool’s rough sleepers entering its pubs in the city. A spokesman for the chain, Eddie Gershon, told the Echo: “Wetherspoon does not have a specific policy relating to homeless people. In truth, we wouldn’t know whether someone who wished to drink or eat in our pub was homeless and nor would it matter. We would simply expect all customers to adhere to the standards we set in our pubs and to show respect to our staff.”

Ms Rimmer told Cornwall Live that she had seen the two rough sleepers while she was out with a friend. She said: “I really felt for them because they were almost my son’s age [21] – I thought this could be my son sitting there and that they are somebody’s son. We swapped numbers so I called Chris and offered to take him for breakfast.”

“We went to the bar in Wetherspoon with Chris and his friend Ryan, who is also homeless and even before we ordered they said I’m sorry I can’t serve you because I know you are homeless. I said hang on – I’m trying to do a nice thing here and explained that they had a rough night so I was trying to make sure they have a good meal.”

“The manager said that they’ve had too many problems with homeless people over the last week, but I know which group that would have been because they have been a major problem in Truro. Chris and Ryan had only been here for three days and they weren’t smelly, noisy or rowdy. The manager said they have banned all homeless people and they even said if someone comes in who is smelly they would refuse to serve them. I was so gobsmacked and gutted for the lads.”

Responding, Mr Gershon said: “There are always two sides to every story and having the account from staff at the pub, we back their decision. There had been an incident outside the pub the previous day involving acquaintances of the homeless men and the staff member felt uncomfortable letting them into the pub.”