The hospitality industry is in turmoil from the coronavirus

On Monday, Boris Johnson advised the UK population to avoid pubs, clubs and other venues. The Prime Minister did not though order our hospitality and leisure venues to close. You might think this was a sensible precaution, but in the past 24 hours it has left the hospitality industry – the third largest private sector employer in the country at 3.2 million people, that contributes £130 billion to the national economy – in turmoil.

The day after Boris Johnson’s announcement, I ventured out to a newly-opened pasta restaurant in east London for an early supper. At 6:45pm the restaurant was almost full of people enjoying a plate of cacio e pepe and a glass or two of Chianti. If you were unaware of what was going in the outside world, apart from maybe the slightly subdued nature of the room and the fact the usual two-hour queue didn’t exist for this popular restaurant, you’d think things were pretty normal.