WWhen Lara Bose heard about Labour’s proposed ban on outdoor smoking areas, she was shocked. “I literally live with the person I was in a smoking area with 3 years ago. Keir hates love!” she posted on X.
Bose, 21, met her partner, Ben, three years ago in the outdoor smoking area of a London venue, where they shared a cigarette and their first kiss. Describing their fateful meeting at the Under the Bridge venue at Stamford Bridge stadium in 2021, Bose said she spotted Ben, a student at the same university, and found him attractive and charming.
“There were so many people and it was so loud and so I finally just asked him if he wanted to smoke and we went outside,” she said. “We just sat there talking until the bar closed and they sent us away. We’ve been together ever since.”
This week it was revealed that the government is considering introducing a ban on smoking in outdoor areas in England, including areas and pavements outside clubs, bars and universities. The proposals have quickly sparked widespread debate, with the hospitality sector issuing stark warnings that the ban would be another “nail in the coffin” for struggling venues.
Several social media users indicated that smoking areas were the focal point of a night out, a place to chat, flirt – and smoke – with strangers.
While Bose said she understood the public health argument for the ban, she expressed concern about the lack of social spaces. “My partner has asthma; my father has asthma. I’ve had pneumonia, probably as a result of smoking,” she said, but added that outdoor smoking areas were “one of the last places where people felt able to just have a conversation with a complete stranger.”
Figures from the Office for National Statistics last year showed that dementia was the leading cause of death in England and Wales, but smoking was another important factor in preventable diseases and deaths.
Dr Layla McCay, director of policy at the NHS Confederation, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Thursday: “It’s absolutely the health challenge of our time. It’s the biggest cause of preventable disease in the UK, so we’re pleased to see progress being made and the drive to really tackle one of the biggest drivers of health inequalities in Britain.”
Nixon Kohyrelon, 25, a ticket seller who lives in Coventry, said he had never smoked, but he said he felt the same way as Bose about socializing outside: “The smoking room is where the magic happens.”
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Kohyrelon said he and his friends often talked to people they were attracted to and met strangers in the smoking areas of nightclubs. “The easiest way is, ‘Do you have a cigarette?’ And with this magic word, anything can happen.”
Sophie, 25, met her boyfriend of seven years, Nick, 27, on her first day at university in the smoking area of their accommodation. “There’s a good chance we would never have met if it wasn’t for that smoking icebreaker,” she said. “Now he’s moved to the UK, we live together and I owe it all to that bag of Golden Virginia tobacco.”
Sophie said she understood the dangers of smoking, but described smoking areas as “part of British culture”. “It’s a chance for people to meet in real life rather than on apps – it’s vibrant and fun and I wouldn’t change it. I met my boyfriend, made friends and built relationships through smoking areas, and I would hate to see that go to waste.”