14-05-2025
Cities should embrace the culture of alfresco dining
One of the few good things to emerge from the Covid disaster was alfresco dining. Country pubs, suffering a catastrophic loss of custom, put chairs and tables in their gardens, erected tents that counted as outdoors and safely carried on serving pub grub and ale. Rather trickier in towns, but pavements were soon colonised and then whole streets. Soho no longer counted on luring in the London lewd but did a nice trade in dinners all along Old Compton Street. Manchester, Birmingham and Liverpool followed suit.
With bikers forced to scoot down other alleys, flower planters barring the way to cars and even urban fumes kept at bay, Brits could briefly imagine they were carefree in gay Paree. Fine on a fine June evening; a
