Hospitality Businesses Reopen After COVID-19 Lockdown

On 4 July 2020, we reopened our hospitality businesses as restrictions imposed during the first COVID-19 lockdown were eased in England. The date allowed hotels, restaurants, pubs and other hospitality and tourism businesses to welcome customers again, provided they operated in line with COVID-secure requirements. Government guidance for accommodation providers included enhanced cleaning between guests, while hospitality businesses were required to adapt their operations to reduce contact and support social distancing. For English Lakes, the reopening followed a period in which the pandemic and national restrictions had brought normal hotel operations to a halt. We marked the return of hospitality by firing the cannon from the jetty at Low Wood Bay on Windermere. Our company history records 4 July as the reopening date and the cannon firing as our way of marking the occasion. The cannon itself has a long association with Low Wood Bay and Windermere and has traditionally been fired to commemorate special occasions. The reopening was an important operational moment, but it did not represent an immediate return to pre-pandemic conditions. Some leisure facilities, including indoor swimming pools and spas, were still required to remain closed at that stage, and the wider hospitality sector continued to operate under public-health restrictions.