Marston's pubs to open on funeral day but Batham's stay shut
One of the UK's biggest pubs groups is planning to open all its sites on the day of Queen Elizabeth II's funeral.
Wolverhampton-based Marston's said all managed house would be opening with tenants having the choice of whether to open or not on Monday, which is a bank holiday.
Batham's, a smaller Black Country pubs chain is shutting all its managed pubs for the day.
Marston's, which has more than 1,500 pubs and restaurants, is instructing staff to be sensitive to the occasion.
Its spokesman Jeremy Eaton said: "To show respect to the late monarch there will be a break in service at our pubs during the course of the funeral at Westminster Abbey, which starts at 11am."
Batham's in Brierley Hill has decided that its pubs across the Black Country, Staffordshire and Worcestershire will stay shut from 10.30pm on Sunday until 12 noon on Tuesday.
"We did not feel it was appropriate to open and staff had requested to be able to watch the funeral," a brewery spokeswoman said.
Pubs in the Kingswinford-based Black Country Ales chain will be showing the funeral service on their televisions. The pubs will be open from 10am on Monday.
