08-05-2025
Pubs sell fish and chips and beer at 1945 prices to celebrate VE Day
A patriotic pub sold fish and chips at 1945 prices on Thursday to celebrate the 80th anniversary of VE Day.
For one hour, The Bell Hotel in Winslow, Buckinghamshire, sold battered cod with chips and mushy peas for just 8p.
Landlord Phil Gomm, 63, was expecting to sell 150 servings of the traditional supper, and said the pub was 'well packed' ahead of lunchtime trading.
'When you look back at the Second World War, fish and chips was one of the main meals everyone had,' he said.
'The potatoes were a good quantity from the fields of Great Britain, and fish was an easy product to obtain. The Bell is subsidising the costs in good faith for those who gave their lives.
'It is us saying thank you for keeping Great Britain as Great Britain. Without those servicemen and women, we wouldn't be here today.'
He added: 'It is something that should never ever be put to the back burner and forgotten. We would hope that would prevent the nastiness and venom of wars in different nations today.'
'It needs celebrating'
In Ilkley, West Yorkshire, The Flying Duck's pub landlord, Gerard Simpson, 51, lowered the cost of its Wharfedale Brewery Gold beer to just 7p per pint.
The pub is selling the first 80 pints of the beer, which usually costs £4.80, at 1945 prices.
Gerard, whose 21-year-old son Harry serves in the Army, said he hoped pubgoers would give to charity 'generously'.
'The world would be completely different if it wasn't for today,' he said. 'As veterans pass away, it just seems to be getting forgotten on a year-by-year basis and it needs celebrating.
'I just hope people give generously and don't just give the seven pence, we're taking no money at all for the Gold today, and at the end of the day all the money's going into a collection pot for the Royal British Legion.
'The work they do is absolutely fantastic. My own son is in the British military and I just think it's important that there is a fund there to look after these veterans, whether they be old or young, whether they've got physical injuries or mental injuries.
'They also look after the families, I just think they do a fantastic job.'
