This Greater Manchester pub will serve beer by candlelight – with two fingers to soaring energy prices

The landlord of a pub in Greater Manchester has promised that he will operate by candlelight instead of bowing to “crazy” energy price hikes.

In a colourful tweet that has now gone viral, Kallum Nolan, who runs The Crown Inn in Middleton, told energy companies to “f***ing sling it” following the news that his energy bill would go up 200 per cent in October.

pic.twitter.com/qTi67JR4Ea

— Crown Inn Middleton (@CrownMiddleton) September 8, 2022

“These faceless corporate entities want to put a tax on socialising,” Nolan told CODE Hospitality. “There’s a tax on people actually getting together and community cohesiveness.”

He went on to say The Crown Inn is the ‘lifeblood’ for many locals: “It’s a pub that a lot of elderly people rely on. A lot of families rely on it. A lot of single people, you know, who come in here every day, and this is their only bit of human contact.”

More broadly, the Great British pub is under threat from rising food costs, staffing shortages, and a lack of consumer confidence, and many have already had to increase the price of a pint in response.

We are now being told that we possibly won’t have Energy clarity for Hospitality until Nov, as the Party Conference will get in the way.

Here’s an idea: cancel the conference.

— Sacha Lord (@Sacha_Lord) September 14, 2022

Nolan has twice had to raise his prices in the last six months due to the knock-on effects of supply chain issues.

When he discovered that his energy bill was set to increase from £4,000 to £11,000 per quarter, he said on Twitter: ‘In light of the current energy crisis, we at The Crown will have no choice but to tell energy firms to f*** right off.

“Beer will be pulled by candlelight and football will be shown on TVs powered by generators.”

He told CODE that sending the post was “quite cathartic’,” and the tweet has since been liked 18,000 times and received a litany of supporters.

Would he really start pulling beers by candlelight? “One hundred per cent, without a doubt. I might start stocking up on candles now. It’s a nice old school 200-year-old pub, it’ll probably look nice in the candlelight.”

A friend of Kallum’s, who runs a community centre in a neighbouring town, ‘told British Gas about three months ago to do one,” and has already bought a couple of generators.

In the face of crisis, Kallum said he hopes he’ll inspire others to act: “Now’s the time that we all come together and fight back because we need our pubs. If this country loses its pubs it’ll have nothing left.”