Wetherpoon could make a huge change to their opening hours this year. Boss Sir Tim Martin is pushing for extended licensing hours and has called for his pubs to be allowed to be “open all night”.
He said he would like his pubs to stay open later than they currently do. It comes as JD Wetherspoon is set to open a number of new pubs across the UK in 2025. Martin said: “We open until 1am in most pubs at the weekend, but if we opened for another hour maybe that would be a good thing.”
He added: “We open from 8am to 1am on the weekend and from 8am to midnight on the other nights – but if you put in a good word for us we could open all night!”
New Wetherspoon pubs will open at Manchester Airport’s Terminal Two, Fulham Broadway Station, and London Bridge’s Tooley Street as part of expansion plans this year. There will also be new sites on Bath’s George Street, Beaconsfield’s Station Road, Wetherby High Street, and Fareham’s Whiteley shopping centre.
The pub chain has already opened sites in Marlow, Buckinghamshire, and at London Waterloo station. Martin has emphasised the important role the pubs play in society’s wellbeing, despite well-documented challenges in the industry.
He said: “It’s a social melting pot. I think people go mad staring at their four walls wanting to get out, and I think a pub is historically a way people in this country have met each other outside of their own tight social circle.”
Martin continued: “We have someone working for us in our pub in Clacton who is 88 or 89 now.” When asked about retirement, the employee responded: “What stay home and stare at the four walls? There’s a bit of that in all of us.”
He also explained how certain parts of the industry have struggled in recent years. He said: “For some reason, the late night market seems to have struggled more than the common or garden pub, which doesn’t have entertainment, but I’m not too sure why that is.”
The Wetherspoon boss pointed to rising costs as a key challenge. “I think there’s room for pubs, they’ve become relatively more expensive, that’s the issue,” he said.
Here is the full list of new Wetherspoon pubs that are set to open in 2025:
- Manchester Airport – Terminal Two
- Fulham – Fulham Broadway Station
- Bath – George Street
- Beaconsfield – Station Road
- Wetherby – High Street
- Tooley Street – London Bridge
- Fareham – Whiteley Shopping Centre
- Cleethorpes Beach – Lincolnshire
- Devon Cliffs – Devon
- Kent Coast – Kent
- Haggerston Castle – Northumberland