A STRANGE ANOMALY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 77, Issue 82, 7 April 1934, Page 10

A STRANGE ANOMALY

TEN O’CLOCK CLOSING. TWO SIDES OF OXFORD STREET. LONDON, Feb. 27. Licensing Justices sitting at Alarylebono Town Hall yesterday heard an application by the Marylebone and Paddington Licensees’ Trade Protection Association for a variation of the hours of opening. The Bench decided not to make any change in the hours, which will remain 11 a.m. till 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. till 10 p-m. Sir Henry Curtis Bennett, who appeared for* the association, said that the members wanted an 11 p.m. closing hour on weekdays, the same as on the other side of Oxford Street. People could drink until 10 p.m. on one side of Oxford Street, and then cross the street and drink for another hour. In this division there had sprung up in recent years 67 clubs, 57 of them had chosen 11 p.m. as their closing time. Air. St. John Hutchinson, on behalf of a group of restaurants and hotels on the north' side of Oxford Street, stated that tho capital involved in the interests he represented amounted to about £4,000,000. Hotels and restaurants were terribly handicapped by this anomalous position in Oxford Street. The Marylebone Chamber of Commerce had stated by resolution the opinion that the 10 p.m. closing hour was bringing annoyance to visitors and ridicule upon tho law. “Oxford Street, because of its ridiculous closing hours,” he declared, “has become a joke throughout the world.” Air. Cyril Salmon, representing tho new Cumberland Hotel, as well as several restaurants, asserted. “We are only asking for fair play. We lose upwards of 15,000 meals a week because of the drink hours anomaly. Many of our potential customers just cross the road. Bishop on Beer. The Bishop of Willosden, who. at the outset, admitted: “I am not a Prohibitionist or a repressionist. I don’t think it wrong to drink a glass of beer,” held that there was no public demand for a change in the hours. He opposed the application because the later hour would not be beneficial to a wide area in liis diocese in north London, where, generally, 10 o’clock closing was the rule. As an old parish priest also he opposed any lengthening of licensing hours. The Rev. T. G. B. Kay, of St. Paul’s, Marylebone (formerly of Wellington), who joined in the opposition, said: “I went to America, and was cured of Prohibition. It is nonsense to say that tho Devil is in a glass of beer.” Ho had visited public houses in Oxford Street, he admitted, amid laughter, adding that the people who left the houses on one side of the street at ten, and went to the other side until eleven, had generally had quite enough.