Phone Free Bar

The Gin Tub lets you socialise with the people you are with, rather than the people you are not with.

16:53 16 August 2016

People these days spend almost every living moment with their smartphones using the devices as alarm clock, camera, city guide, encyclopedia, and to connect with their friends through social media. However, the use of such technology is becoming worrisome as almost 60per cent of people revealed they are hooked to their devices while four in 10 adults feel they are regularly ignored by a friend or a relative who was using a tablet or smartphone.

 

A local bar in the bustling seaside city of Brighton and Hove called the Gin Tub, has made headlines for filling the insides of its crimson and bare brick walls with silver foil and ceiling in copper with one goal in mind – block mobile signal so its patrons can socialise with the people they are with, rather than the people they are not with.

 

Patrons love the idea. Juliet Stephens, a 39-year-old drama therapist, said: “It’s a novelty, but a novelty with a purpose,” 

 

Another patron, Caroline Stephens, a 35-year-old recruitment consultant, said: “We thought the set-up has the potential to be wanky or quite cool. It’s brilliant. We are shackled to our phones and it’s refreshing to go somewhere where you don’t have that.”