St Albans pub's 'dog friendly, child free' sign causes stir

X - formerly Twitter - user @hifromkyle posted a picture of himself next to the sign outside the Lower Red Lion, captioning the image "found my new local".

In the four days since the tweet was posted, it has been viewed more than 74 million times, received 58,000 likes, 18,000 retweets and been commented on 3,300 times.

The sign has stirred up plenty of debate online, with people both for and against the policy.

Found my new local pic.twitter.com/DXaawt0G0U

— KYLE (@hifromkyle) April 14, 2024

"Where is this? If anything we need more child free venues. I'd love to swing by," said one user.

"People go out to the pub to have a quiet night and to socialise with friends they don't get to see often. What I don't want is their screaming children running around and throwing tantrums. What I do want is a fluffy good boy to stroke," another added.

Parents were even agreeing with the policy, with one saying: "I have a three-year-old son and a nine-year-old dog. I completely agree with this."

"I'm a parent and I think there needs to be more places like this," another said.

Here's what some X users had to say on the sign. (Image: Canva)

Others did not agree with the sign, with one X user saying they hope the Lower Red Lion "genuinely goes out of business".

"For the average person to think this is normal is morally disgusting," said another.

Other users believed the sign reflected the current society, with one user saying: "The sign is a reflection of how people are living their lives. It isn’t about a pub. It’s a fact that grown adults for their first time in history are celebrating being child free. And people wonder why there’s so many depressed 30-plus year olds with no purpose."

"Why has it become socially acceptable to literally hate children?," another simply questioned.

Other users simply couldn't believe the heated debate was taking place, saying: "I’m shocked at the amount of discourse that this one picture has created."