Norman's Coach & Horses Pub was the first vegan-friendly watering hole around London, but now it's earned a new title—the city's only nudist bar. So if tequila does in fact make your clothes fall off (cc: Joe Nichols), you might want to pay this Soho institution a visit.
The pub first opened in 1847, but has taken a more innovative approach to sustaining the business in recent years. Alastair Choat, Coach & Horses longtime landlord, is devoted to remaining independent, despite the rise in franchising through the neighborhood.
"There is this—in times of real need and despair and trying to defend something of value—great British tradition of stripping off," Choat told CNN. So that they are doing. The nudist license grants Coach & Horses patrons and employees alike to hang out in their birthday suits.
But like, if you stop by on any given Tuesday for a lunchtime pint, you're gonna need clothes. Do not show up naked in daylight. Just don't do it. Nudity will only be permitted during consensual, scheduled nights. We are going to be planning, in June, a nude night," Choat continued. "[We] haven't got the exact date yet, but that's what's going be happening—so that all these people phoning up wanting to get naked and have a pint in the center of Soho will be able to do so."
In honor of the milestone, Coach & Horses created a nude charity calendar called The Beauty and the Beasts of Soho. It's selling for $25 USD and is filled with pub regulars in the buff. Proceeds will be donated to St. Mungo's to end homelessness.
Though Paris's nude restaurant O'Naturale flopped—it closed this January—the occasional naked night thing sounds novel enough that it just might work.
