England’s restaurants plead for help as Omicron wipes out bookings

Andrew Taylor’s Croydon gastropub is just one of thousands hit by mixed messages from government over socialising

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For weeks, Andrew Taylor had pinned his hopes on “mad Friday”, the last one before the Christmas holidays when hundreds of people would normally pack into his gastropub in Croydon.

But as Covid case numbers soared last week, the number of cancellations grew. Instead of the 300 bookings Taylor had pencilled in at the start of the week, just 41 groups turned up at his venue, Mr Fox, on Friday night. What should have been the busiest night of the year was a washout.