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This central London pub is charging £2 extra for pints served after 10pm

The owners of O’Neill’s Wardour Street have justified the surcharge by saying it goes towards paying security on the door

Leonie Cooper
Written by
Leonie Cooper
Food & Drink Editor, London
Pint of lager in a pub or bar
Photograph: Shutterstock
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It wasn’t that long ago that we reported on the horrifying arrival of the £8 pint in London. Now, it troubles us to inform you that we’re already almost at the £10 mark.

Turns out that O’Neill’s on Wardour Street has put in place a £2 surcharge on drinks served after 10pm, meaning that Brewdog IPA – which is usually £7.40 – is £9.40 later on the evening. Oof. BTW, the surcharge applies to all drinks sold – not just beers. 

This take on surge pricing is only listed on an A4 sign at the end of the bar, reports the Independent, which states: ‘We operate a variable price list in this venue’. Strangely, the same surcharge isn’t in place in other O’Neill’s branches in the capital, including the nearby Carnaby Street branch of the Irish-themed chain bar.

The venue owners have said that the surcharge is to help pay for the door staff needed by the venue later in the evenings. ‘Dynamic pricing varies on a site by site basis as it reflects the local market conditions, but temporary price increases tend to reflect the need to offset additional costs such as at times when door security is required,’ a spokesperson for Mitchells & Butlers (the company which runs O’Neills) told the Independent.

In the 1950s and 1960s, the Wardour Street space now occupied by O’Neill’s was home to jazz bar the Flamingo Club, and saw live appearances by everyone from The Rolling Stones and Otis Redding to Dizzy Gillespie and Rod Stewart. By the 1980s it was called the Wag Club and played host to the first ever hip-hop club night in 1982.

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