The best self-service drinking in London

For all the joys of London pubs, no-one in the capital likes queueing up to get served.

In fact, the hassle of competing for space at the bar and the long wait times can be enough to put people off going out altogether.

It’s estimated that it takes an average of 12 minutes to get served in a UK bar, while London crowds — especially on weekends — can see punters wait much longer for a round of drinks. However, some pubs in London are making the effort to stop queueing woes by introducing self-service stations, operated exclusively by customers.

The first “iPub” actually opened in Swansea back in 2014, allowing customers to serve themselves via a tablet mounted to their tables. Punters were drawn to the novelty factor of pouring their own drinks, and they’ve been springing up over the UK ever since.

Not everyone can pour the perfect pint of craft beer or Guinness, and some have argued that self-service operators would cost the livelihoods of bar staff across the country, but the idea of cutting down the average wait time to a matter of seconds is certainly an appealing idea.

The trend is being adopted in more and more outlets after Henry’s Café Bar in Piccadilly introduced London’s first self-service Pay@Pump beer tap, allowing punters to pour their own pints over Christmas 2016.

While the venue no longer features the tap, it seems to have set a precedent for other pubs in the city. Fulham’s The Lazy Fox offered a full pay-as-you-go beer wall until it shut a few years back too, but the most high-profile pub offering self-service in 2018 is the Thirsty Bear in Waterloo.

The venue features tables fitted with iPads and beer taps. Customers are given a swipe-card on entry and they’re able to pour themselves drinks all night, all with the added bonus of never having to leave their table.

Since opening in 2012, the pub has proven that there’s a place in London’s drinking scene for self-service.

The venue has also diversified its drink options since launching and now offers punters that chance to pull pints of Blue Moon, Kozel, Pilsner and Thistly Cross Cider from the beer wall.

The pub is run by tech firm Tabology, which offers one of the few queue-free pub experiences in London.

Venturing a little further afield, The Queen's Head in Reading became one of the UK’s first pubs to offer a customer-operated beer wall in 2015. Six ale and cider options can be accessed through the fully automated system after purchasing beer cards from the main bar.

While not strictly self-service, the ‘Press for Champagne’ button at London’s Bob Bob Ricard is another way for customers to top up their drinks without leaving their seats — it’s no wonder that the Soho restaurant pours more fizz than any other restaurant in the UK.

There are plenty of pop-up events that allow customers to serve themselves too. Earlier this year Taste This Beer London launched a tasting event in Shoreditch that was exclusively operated by members of the public, while venues as eclectic as Beacon Bingo in Cricklewood and Reading University student union run their own throughout the year.

Ali Rees of Tabology expects many more venues to spring up in London over the coming months. “The last 12 months have been a turning point,” he told imbible.com. “There’s been a hell of a lot of interest from some of the bigger players, whereas up until now it has been independents or entrepreneurial types… there’s a fair few very actively looking at doing it soon.”

At the moment, self-service remains a novelty in London pubs but it could be just a matter of time before we’re all pouring our own pints.