"She said we had to leave because we were being obscene. At about 10.45pm, a woman who said she was the landlady intervened.īull said he was putting on his coat to leave and had given Williams "a peck on the lips" when the woman, who was wearing a staff uniform, came up to them. The couple refused what they said was a "polite request" and their stay continued unhindered. Williams and Bull said they were not indulging in a "huge display of affection" but were merely kissing on the lips. Their peace was shattered when a fellow drinker, who claimed to be the landlord, asked them to refrain from kissing because it was "bothering" him. "The people are friendly, it's not too expensive considering the area and it's a decent pub where you can just relax," Williams added. The pub is near the heart of London's "gay village" but does not style itself as a gay bar.
"It's a nice little pub, it's a nice atmosphere," Williams said. Williams, 26, and Bull, 23, had enjoyed a dinner in Covent Garden before heading for the John Snow to indulge a shared passion – the pub's cider. While the management at the John Snow were unimpressed by Williams and Bull's embraces – which one bystander told the Guardian amounted to "snogging, but it wasn't heavy petting" – the lovestruck pair found rather more support on Twitter and Facebook, even inspiring plans for a "kiss-in" event at the pub next week. "I'm not the kind of person to do that kind of thing in public."
"We weren't being over the top there wasn't anything that would be deemed unseemly," Williams said. The two men deny having behaved in any unseemly way. The event has triggered a public debate on open displays of affection, how much is too much, and whether Williams and Bull were treated differently because they are gay.