ONE UK pub has one of the earliest start times – serving pints from 6am with last orders at 8:30am.
The Market Porter pub, in Borough Market, serves London’s earliest pint at 6am, thanks to a special license.
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The pub is open from 6am, Monday to Friday, and is often busy serving drinks before most people are out of bed.
Due to its location and opening time, the pub is popular with night workers including nurses, police officers and TfL staff.
The landlord also claims it caters to individuals who want a drink before a long day in the city.
The Market Porter was one of a handful of pubs to be given a special license, so that it could offer drinks to market traders and vendors in Borough Market.
The pub has been located on Stoney Street since the 1600s and became the Marker Porter in 1890.
But this isn’t the first time the pub has had something unusual about it.
In the past the pub has also done deals from the bar for horses, sheep and other goods.
Manager Tony Sommerville believes due to other pub closures, he’ll soon be serving the first available pint in the capital.
The manager of 19 years said: “We get a real mix of people, to be honest.
“It’s usually night shift workers – police, nurses, TfL staff. So they get their pint after work, just at a different time.
“We’re also near Guy’s Hospital, so sometimes people visiting at odd hours pop in. We’re here for the good news and the bad news.”
He continued to explain how the area is popular with tourists, and therefore the pub often receives people who have recently got off a flight, and are waiting for the time they are able to check-in to their hotel.
He added: “And of course, you get the odd person coming in suited and booted – who I can only assume is stopping in before work.
“We actually used to have one regular customer who worked in the City, and he’d have two gin and tonics every day before work.
“He looked pretty fancy, too. So there are some characters.”
The pub has even had its moment in the movies, featuring in one of the Harry Potter films.
It was also made from exempt from sober laws during World War I, as it was seen as a vital place for business dealings.
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Tony, 49, said the Market Porter could soon be London’s last early-morning pub, as similar venues in Smithfield and Billingsgate are closing down.
He said: “People are grateful we’re here as there aren’t many other places like it.
“We know of one in Smithfield and one in Billingsgate, but they’re both going.
“And, we have to be open early for deliveries and the like anyway, so why not serve customers too?”
However, Tony noted how some customers are worried about being judged drinking in the early morning.
He explained: “The initial thought is, ‘Why are people drinking at that time of day?’
“But people have different reasons.”
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He added that night shift workers, for example, “deserve their post-work pint too”.
Tony also considered getting rid of the pubs glazed windows recently, but regulars stopped him from doing so because “they don’t want to be judged”.
One TfL worker, enjoying a pint at the pub at 8am having just finished a night shift, said: “I work nights so I sometimes stop off here on the way home.
“It’s my Friday night, you see. Especially as our shifts differ from week to week.
“It’s good to have somewhere open early morning. It caters to people you don’t normally think of.”
Tony continued that the pub used to be visited by partygoers who didn’t want to end their night, but he admitted that they had stopped serving these people as “it just wasn’t worth it”.
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The Market Porter has no intentions to stop its early hour opening times whilst they still get people visiting them.
“It’s a community. And it’s nice to be that place people can come whenever,” he concluded.
The Market Porter opens from 6am to 9am every week day, before closing for an hour to take deliveries.
It then reopens from 10am until 11pm. On weekends, it opens from midday until 11pm.
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