Sussex Landlord Blocks Mobile Phone Signals in his bar to make people more social

A bar–owner in Hove, Sussex has made his pub a mobile signal free zone, in an attempt to get his patrons to engage in face to face conversation.

"I've seen it progressively get worse and worse and I thought, 'I want to stop this'," Steve Tyler, who runs the Gin Tub in Hove, said.

"I want people to socialise with the people they are with, rather than the people they are not with," he said after explaining to BBC Sussex how he watched people in his bar engaging with people outside the building rather than those they're with".

The bar owner created what has been called a "Faraday cage" by putting silver foil in the walls and copper wire mesh in the ceiling, blocking out electric fields and acting as a barrier against phone signals.

Tyler explained that he is considering setting up an area similar to a smoking area, where patrons may use their phones. He also pointed out that patrons can use the bar landline in case of emergency. "It's the same as the London Underground - that's no more dangerous than my bar."

This move has been met with general approval. "I've had one complaint from a customer, and it was that she got a signal. We moved her to another table."

Tyler's decision is not the first of its kind. Japanese deli Auradaze, in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, banned mobile phones in January of this year.