Free Turkey roasts on Christmas day-what did it feel like?

I don't think there's ever been a pub story which has got more traction on the media, not a "positive" pub story anyway. Unless it's the "pub poisons 93 people who ate dodgy chicken" type of article, or "pub landlord shoots bloke who added Guinness onto the end of his round" kind of thing, you don't tend to see much news about individual hostelries, even less their charitable work. That's a shame in many respects as much good goes on in pubs throughout Britain on a daily basis, but I guess the newshounds figure "pub raises £250 for local hospice" ain't gonna sell many papers, and lets be honest they're probably right.

So we were probably even more surprised than you were when the Evening Standard, Talk Radio, BBC Radio London, SKY News, ITN London etc came knocking at our door looking for an angle on the "free roasts if you're on your own on Crimbo day" story. Yes the Wimbledon Guardian had gotten hold of it (and we were even quite chuffed at that) but when you've got people emailing you from Australia and the USA telling you how happy the story made them, you get to know what they mean when they say it's gone "viral". Even more surprising we thought given we've done a similar thing for the last five years, but I guess in those years it didn't get retweeted by George Galloway to 259K followers, setting up a chain of events which saw it spin around the world.

Obviously when literally millions of people read it you are bound to get the odd one who either doesn't get it at all, or alternatively writes the whole thing off as a cynical marketing ploy. To that end we had a couple of people telling us "homeless people don't have Twitter accounts" despite the fact the gesture wasn't specifically aimed at homeless people anyway. Equally, it was frustrating to read one guy from hundreds of miles away speculate that the Alex was probably "a dingy little pub that nobody ever goes in" (how wrong can you be in one sentence?) then go onto explain it was nothing more than a crude PR exercise. Thankfully most people though "got" it, and we didn't respond to any negativity online as we never do.

So what was it like on the day? naturally we were a bit worried, and having no idea whatsoever how many people were going to show up we catered for 200 and crossed our fingers it would be enough. We were slightly concerned just before opening when a trickle of single men who were unknown to us began to queue outside the door, but after an early flow it slowed down to a dribble then eventually to a stop. We served 29 people in the end with a free roast, none of whom looked homeless to me (that non PC comment will no doubt go down well) and their ages ranged from one young fella of around 22 to a couple of what looked like retired colonels who could've been in their 80's. The split was around 60:40 men to women I should think, and the average age 50 or so. I greeted all of them on arrival and got them a beer, took their names then told them we'd have a table in "about ten minutes or so". Then when the next person came in, I'd take their name then casually throw in "oh I'll tell you what, let me introduce you to so and so" and kind of got people together that way. I was able to sit people in groups of three and four, and there were a few fledgling friendships (and one budding romance!) formed.

We had four non paid helpers who very kindly offered their services via Twitter, and they were absolutely lovely. Our staff were brilliant too (because they are) and we were also helped on the day by the very big hearted Tom Elliot-Frey from Youngs.

The people who came seemed to love it, they all seemed to have a good old laugh and were unbelievably thankful when they left. All said they'd been wavering as to whether to come or not (which leads us to think there are probably heaps more people in the same boat) but were extremely glad they did. I reckon we'll do it again next year, although it won't get the media coverage as by then it'll be "old hat". If you're a publican yourself and considering giving it a go, I reckon you'll have no worries. If you need any advice (I know you probably won't but hashtag just saying) contact me at the Alex.

Now we've well and truly had our Andy Warhol moment, we can get back to just running our pub again, Happy New Year everyone!