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My unlicensed hovercraft bar is technically legal

Tom Scott | August 9, 2025



If you want to sell alcohol in England, you need a license. But the Licensing Act 2003 has some unusual exceptions. • Thanks to Marc and the team from the Axceler-8 Hovercraft Centre: http://hovercraftcentre.co.uk/ • Behind the scenes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQXqkBiqRCI

Licensing Act 2003: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2003/17/contents

Filmed safely: https://www.tomscott.com/safe/

Camera: Matt Gray https://mattg.co.uk
Logistics and original idea: Jonty Wareing https://twitter.com/jonty
Thanks to: Rob Hiseman
Editor: Michelle Martin https://www.youtube.com/@OnTheCrux
Audio mix: Graham Haerther

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Written by Tom Scott

Comments

This post currently has 45 comments.

  1. @TomScottGo

    August 9, 2025 at 3:27 pm

    As ever, thanks to everyone who helped out with this! In particular Marc, whose hovercraft will have had a faint smell of beer about it for a day or two afterwards…

  4. @DanielCrist

    August 9, 2025 at 3:27 pm

    You don't need some kind of general business license or anything? You could just get on a ferry with a cooler and (assuming the ferry was alright with it) sell some drinks without needing any kind of licence or registration?

    Or you could build a little railcar bar that drives back and forth on a small section of abandoned rail, perfectly legal without any licenses?

  5. @zakmac95

    August 9, 2025 at 3:27 pm

    It's not legal Tom, it's illegal to supply alcohol by retail from a moving vehicle. It's only legal to sell from a parked vehicle. Planes will not sell you alcohol in British airspace. It is however acceptable to include alcoholic beverages as an option in vehicle hire, taxis, limousines, wedding cars etc as long as the transaction takes place while the vehicle is stationary. "This section makes it an offence to sell alcohol by retail on or from any vehicle which is not permanently or temporarily parked." Part 7, section 156. You don't need a license to do it because it's illegal anyway.

  7. @Moonstone-Redux

    August 9, 2025 at 3:27 pm

    The exception for hovercraft is intended because there were hovercraft ferry services between UK and France.
    …they didn't really limit how small the hovercraft can be though.

  27. @Susandwyer

    August 9, 2025 at 3:27 pm

    I'd argue, you were not on a journey, you just moving.

    Don't worry, I've already contacted HMRC regarding tax evasion, Just looking the number for MI5 regarding unlicensed booze flogging. /s

  30. @topilinkala1594

    August 9, 2025 at 3:27 pm

    Reminds me what I once heard on ferry from Helsinki to Stockholm. Guy asks the bartender: "Can I take this beer to the promenade?" Bartender answers:"You know that by finnish law you are not allowed to take drinks outside the service area. Do not jump overboard."

  34. @rogerlundstrom6926

    August 9, 2025 at 3:27 pm

    I am not entirely sure that this really IS legal. The thing is; There is the "law" then there is the interpretation thereof.. I don't know the exact nature of how law works in the UK, but in most nations there are some assumptions made, AND also "test" cases that kind of sets precedences in regards to how to interpret law and what not.. and.. I would be FAIRLY convinced that there probably IS some form of standard that means that the idea of selling while travelling.. includes BOTH the seller AND the person purchasing the alcohol to be part of that journey. Perhaps not written out explicitly in the actual limited paragraph of the law, but.. perhaps it is implied in the law under which it tangents or something like that… It's of course possible that I am wrong, but if I am.. it's probably because no one SERIOUSLY tried to create a situation where the bar is moving.. and the customer has to run to keep up with it.. So.. IF I am wrong that there already may be some form of obscured provision that means that it wouldn't be allowed under the law, then it would be an omission due to people's lack of imagination, and probably WOULD get a more clear rule against it IF it ever became some form of "real thing".

  36. @Sammy1234568910

    August 9, 2025 at 3:27 pm

    Reminds me of that scene in the Titfield Thunderbolt when they secure their investment from the local alcoholic by opening a bar on the morning train outside normal opening hours.
    During lockdown a Belfast pub tried to use this loophole by selling from a van, although giving it was bringing the pub to the doorstep rather than continuously moving it didn't quite work out.

  38. @shrimpskii3083

    August 9, 2025 at 3:27 pm

    Make a circular pub, where the employee's and the entire facility is a circle, of which is also a hover craft. If it is spinning, technically you are having a journey of which is in a circle. The reasoning behind it being a journey is that if a customer gets on and then gets off, he is at a different location, being transport. Thus, if it is transport, then you can serve drinks to people in the pub unlicensed. It would be less messy, more available, and so much more practical. It would be absolutely hilarious, but it would be a hassle to make.

Comments are closed.

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