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"In February 2020 we brewed a lot of beer because I just KNEW it was going to be busy. Bad call! So we started giving it away for donations right after lockdown and raised over £10,000 for local charities instead. We're a residential pub, in a residential area, so you want to be neighbourly, and community-driven. Some of the charities were really small and getting £1,000 meant a lot during that period when they'd all lost funding. After BBC London mentioned what we were doing we got inundated - we had queues around the block. We were giving away something like 600 litres of beer a week, so quite a lot, and just covered the cost of making the beer, with our staff volunteering and no profits taken.
"It's about the giving not the receiving, isn't it? We're not bean counters, although at the end of the day it is still a business, it has to pay the bills. But it's good karma, and it makes you feel good. We were all on the edge of that same precipice. Furlough came along and saved me, without that we'd have been in serious trouble. If you have it, you give what you can. I live here, upstairs, and people-wise North Finchley is a really nice place to be - full of pretty decent, good human beings. Our regular customers really appreciated that we kept open as much as we could, and they love the staff. We all know each other and you're treated with respect when you come in here and expected to do the same for others. The staff were all dying to get out of the house and do something, and it was nice for us to connect with our customers again. The support from the neighbours and regulars was massive, turning up every week. They knew it was for a good cause. For everyone's mental health it was quite good. So, overall, it ticked a few boxes for us, and we ended up not throwing very much beer away."
"In February 2020 we brewed a lot of beer because I just KNEW it was going to be busy. Bad call! So we started giving it away for donations right after lockdown and raised over £10,000 for local charities instead. We're a residential pub, in a residential area, so you want to be neighbourly, and community-driven. Some of the charities were really small and getting £1,000 meant a lot during that period when they'd all lost funding. After BBC London mentioned what we were doing we got inundated - we had queues around the block. We were giving away something like 600 litres of beer a week, so quite a lot, and just covered the cost of making the beer, with our staff volunteering and no profits taken.
"It's about the giving not the receiving, isn't it? We're not bean counters, although at the end of the day it is still a business, it has to pay the bills. But it's good karma, and it makes you feel good. We were all on the edge of that same precipice. Furlough came along and saved me, without that we'd have been in serious trouble. If you have it, you give what you can. I live here, upstairs, and people-wise North Finchley is a really nice place to be - full of pretty decent, good human beings. Our regular customers really appreciated that we kept open as much as we could, and they love the staff. We all know each other and you're treated with respect when you come in here and expected to do the same for others. The staff were all dying to get out of the house and do something, and it was nice for us to connect with our customers again. The support from the neighbours and regulars was massive, turning up every week. They knew it was for a good cause. For everyone's mental health it was quite good. So, overall, it ticked a few boxes for us, and we ended up not throwing very much beer away."
"In February 2020 we brewed a lot of beer because I just KNEW it was going to be busy. Bad call! So we started giving it away for donations right after lockdown and raised over £10,000 for local charities instead. We're a residential pub, in a residential area, so you want to be neighbourly, and community-driven. Some of the charities were really small and getting £1,000 meant a lot during that period when they'd all lost funding. After BBC London mentioned what we were doing we got inundated - we had queues around the block. We were giving away something like 600 litres of beer a week, so quite a lot, and just covered the cost of making the beer, with our staff volunteering and no profits taken.