Pubs' knight vision

The campaign for St George's Day to become better recognised and celebrated more widely is gaining momentum as we move closer to April 23.

Charles Wells, the Bedford brewer, in partnership with The Publican Newspaper is urging more licensees to come out in favour of England's patron saint and support plans to make the day a national holiday.

While St Patrick's Day was celebrated up and down the country, boosting profits for pubs that joined in with the festivities, St George's Day has traditionally remained a poor second.

Even the mayor of London Ken Livingstone has refused to dip his hand in his pocket for St George's Day for the past two years, but handed out £100,000 to encourage the capital to celebrate the Irish saint's day in March.

But all is not lost and support is growing in favour of making more of St George's Day on April 23.

Over two thirds of licensees polled on thePublican.com have admitted that they would prefer St George's Day to be a bank holiday than St Patrick's Day.

And TV critic Gary Bushell has pledged support for the day claiming: "If you are English turn off the TV on April 23 and get down the pub, preferably in a fine longshanks shirt."

Tenanted pub company Unique recently conducted a survey of 3,025 of its licensees asking them to reveal what calendar events they actively support in their pubs. A huge 41 per cent said they promote St George's Day, putting it ahead of Father's Day.

Staff at Unique's head office in Thame are planning a St George's mufti day on April 23, where employees are encouraged to come to work dressed in red and white as well as donating £1 to Macmillan Cancer Relief.

Graham Turner, managing director at Unique Pub Company said: "Unique is keen to promote St George's Day as an annual event that English pubs can get behind.

"It is an ideal opportunity to celebrate all that is great about English heritage, with the pub as the centrepiece of that heritage."

Charles Wells is running a promotion for Unique's licensees this year. When they buy three nine-gallon casks of Bombardier bitter, they will receive a free Bombardier St George's kit. This includes posters, drip mats, pens and plastic font clips.

The Value of St George​

Licensees are missing out on a whopping £14m in lost revenue by not promoting St George's Day, according to a specially-commissioned report by Charles Wells. The Value of St George campaign was launched by the brewer, together with The Publican, to raise awareness of the potential additional revenue St George's Day could bring about.

Licensee Michele Parry says she usually doubles the pub's weekly turnover by celebrating the day. Her pub, the Artillery Arms in Ramsgate in Kent, will be covered in red and white on the day. And this year she is planning to run a cockney-themed evening with live music and fancy dress. She will also be running a raffle to raise money for charity.

Michele said: "I do something big every year. It's St George's Day after all and we think it should be a national holiday."

With less than a month to go now is the time to get organised for the big day before it's too late.

Here are some tips on how to promote this year's St George's Day on April 23.

• put on traditional English food - bangers and mash, pie, beef Wellington, spotted dick, toad in the hole and so on. This could be on special offer
• make a party of the day. This could involve a fancy dress competition with prizes based around English characters (knights, Robin Hood, royalty etc)
• have an English quiz night - maybe feature English history, films and politics
• host an English music theme day or an English karaoke competition
• put on an English wine tasting evening with food.

For further ideas, including downloadable forms to highlight events to the local press, see www.thevalueofstgeorge.com.