Cuddling lesbian couple are reduced to tears when bar staff told them to ‘tone it down’ after they shared a kiss in a London Wetherspoon pub
- Hannah Clifford and Leoni Malbon-Barker went for lunch at Wetherspoon pub
- They hadn’t seen each other for a while and so exchanged a kiss and a hug
- But staff member at the Coronet in Islington asked them to ‘tone it down’ after a customer complaint
- As they left three men staring at them shouted ‘bye darlings’
A lesbian couple were left ‘vulnerable and embarrassed’ after staff in a Wetherspoon pub told them to ‘tone down’ their kissing and cuddling because a customer had made a homophobic complaint.
Hannah Clifford and Leoni Malbon-Barker, both 21, had gone for a lunch date at The Coronet on Holloway Road, Islington, and having not seen each other for a while they shared a kiss.
But when they were served their drinks, a member of staff said a customer had reported them for ‘snogging each other’s faces off’.
Feeling uncomfortable, they decided to leave, although the staff member told them that they did not need to.
Hannah Clifford and Leoni Malbon-Barker, both 21, had gone for lunch at a Wetherspoon pub in North London. ‘I had my arm around Leoni and had given her a cuddle and a kiss when we arrived because we hadn’t seen each other all day,’ Ms Clifford said
But as they made their way to the door, three men, who they suspect made the complaint, allegedly made sexual gestures towards them before shouting ‘bye darlings’.
‘I had my arm around Leoni and had given her a cuddle and a kiss when we arrived because we hadn’t seen each other all day. But it was nothing raunchy because we were in public,’ Ms Clifford told the Standard.
A waitress then came over the them with their drinks, and while saying she didn’t to cause any offence, informed them a complaint had been about ‘intimate, inappropriate touching’.
Ms Clifford said: ‘At first we didn’t understand what she meant but then we both got really angry. We looked around to see who could have complained but everyone seemed fine. Then we saw three men staring and smiling at us.
A spokesman for Wetherspoon pubs said they were investigating the incident at the Coronet on Holloway Road in Islington
As they left they spotted the group of men.
‘Then the men started making sexual gestures and blew kisses at us, and called after us shouting “bye darlings”.’
Ms Clifford said they went back to complain to the manager, who claimed he would try and culprits banned, and also offered them a free breakfast that they did not accept.
Having been regulars during their university days at nearby London Metropolitan, the couple said they felt too ‘unsafe’ and would never go back.
Wetherspoon spokesman Eddie Gershon told MailOnline: ‘A member of staff asked the couple to stop because they had received complaints from customers saying there was intimate, inappropriate touching under the table.
‘They were fine with this at first and then decided to leave.’
‘As far as we are concerned, if a woman wishes to kiss a woman, or a man wishes to kiss a man in our pub, or any combination of that, that is fine by us.
‘We are not sure of the background to this situation at The Coronet and it will be investigated.’
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