Brits are retaining heat through the bitterly chilly snap – by sinking pints down the pub

On Jan 11, 2025

Chilly Brits have been taking shelter from the bitterly cold snap by propping up bars up and down the country to warm up. They necked 150 million pints in the first 10 days

22:34, 11 Jan 2025

Chilly Brits have been taking shelter from the bitterly cold snap by propping up bars up and down the country (stock)(Image: Getty Images)

Freezing Brits are taking shelter from the bitterly cold snap – by downing pints in the boozer.

Chilly customers are taking refuge in the pub – propping up bars around the country to warm up. Beer sales for the first weeks of 2025 are through the roof with 150 million pints already downed in the first 10 days. Landlord Lee Wright, who runs independent pub The Tankard in Littlehampton, West Sussex, said it has been a welcome start to 2025.

“It has been a rubbish few years for the industry, so it has been lovely to see the bars stacked again,” he said.

Skaters on a frozen flooded field in Upware, Cambridgeshire(Image: PA)

“We will welcome more of the cold if it continues bringing people in.

“Usually we see a post-festive fall in footfall, but this is the busiest we have been in a good few years for this time of the year.”

Tom White, barman at The Park Tavern, Wandsworth, South London, added: “We’re having a Wet January here. Lots of people are coming in for pints, and the Guinness demand is off the scale.

‘We have got the log fires on and drinkers are keeping warm in here to escape the cold weather outside’ (stock)(Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)

“We have got the log fires on and drinkers are keeping warm in here to escape the cold weather outside.”

Pub giant Wetherspoon is also selling 99p pints at its 800 boozers. Boss Tim Martin said: “January is the perfect time for a pub sale.”

And it seems boozy Brits agree – with pubs’ beer sales for the first week of January up 3% when compared to soft drinks.

Ice forms on the water as the temperature hits -4C over the 16 locks that form the steepest part of the flight at Caen Hill Locks in Devizes, Wilsthire(Image: PA)

The stats, provided by Daily Drinks Tracker from CGA by NielsenIQ, cover drink consumption at the nation’s 40,000 pubs and state a further 275 million pints of beer are set to be sunk over the rest of this month as the cold snap rumbles on.

The UK recorded the coldest January night in 15 years on Friday as temperatures plummet to -18.7C in Altnaharra, a hamlet in the most northern region of the Highlands.

And forecasters have warned temperatures are set to plunge even further in the coming week before getting milder.

Young ice hockey players play on a frozen flooded field in Upware, Cambridgeshire(Image: PA)

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has extended its cold weather health alert for all of England until Tuesday.

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Amber alerts have been extended and will now run until January 14 meaning a rise in deaths, particularly among those aged 65 and over or with health conditions, is likely, the agency said.