h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I'm can't be the only one who's heard statements along these lines...

"If you go into a cafe/restaurant/pub and ask for a drink of water, they have to give you one for free."

It occurred to me that "have to" is a rather odd phrase in this context -- who's going to make them? Can you see yourself going down to the police station to report someone if they don't?

I've searched snopes.com, and it doesn't show up as an urban legend. I've googled, and found the following:

"The Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 (SI 1992 No.3004) state that employers must provide an adequate and free supply of drinking water at easily accessible places in the workplace" -- ( http://www.bcentral.co.uk/admin/people/healthsafety/manualworkfaq/Must_A_Company_Provide_Free_Drinking_Water.asp )

But that doesn't say anything about people who wander in off the street.

So, I put it to the h2g2 community...

Free water -- the law, or an urban legend?

I would also like to know...

-- DoctorMO --

SO if you were in the position that someone stumbled in to your place of work obviously needing a drink of water you wouldn't supply it?Or a plaster?Bandage?
Personally I'd rather be a Samaritan than a jobsworth.

Incog.

I can't speak for 21699, but I don't think he started off this thread looking to make any judgements about whether we'd give anyone who asked for it a glass of water, or implying that he wouldn't

My Grandpa always claimed it to be true in the context of pubs.

I've absolutely no idea whether it is true. I suspect urban legend. However, when I used to cycle longish distances I frequently asked to fill up my water bottle and was never refused.

Sprout

Thankyou Gosho

I ask because it's often presented as some kind of commandment handed down from on high that everyone must obey... 'you *have* to'... implying that there is some kind of legal obligation.

I think the moral aspects are sufficiently clear that they don't need debating

As a specific (if vague) example, I heard something about a cafe/pub owner of some sort bemoaning the fact that he had to give out water -- which he paid for -- free... apparently it was a source of some annoyance.

Ah, thankyou, sprout, another sighting

Apologies for mis-spelling your name, 26199 I'm numerically dyslexic.

Before I was old enough to actually go into a pub, I'd often walk into the off-sales section of our local and get a glass of water and was never refused, although the landlady was often a bit peeved at doing it.

In America, this issue was celebrated into urban myth proportions during the Depression years of the 1930s. The homeless and out of work who travelled the country by jumping freight trains, searching for employment, could always count on a glass of water.

The trouble started when they began mixing 'Ketchup' (aka Catsup or 'red sauce') in the water to create a 'free' tomato soup. And the final straw came when hobos began demanding a HOT glass of free water.

So yes, you can still get a free glass of water, but cannot insist it be heated. Condiments are 'available on request'.


~jwf~

OK. I had to do a legal query on this a few years ago. I can't be alabastered to look up the links right now, but as far as I remember, it goes like this: they cannot force you to 'buy' a drink if tapwater is available as part of their usual service* - although they can refuse to serve you - and they cannot charge you for tapwater per se, 'cos it's free to them, but they could do something like slap a service charge on you...

it's all a bit silly in this day and age

*eg if you said "I'll have a whisky and tapwater please" and they said "No problem" you could then say "No, I've changed my mind, I'll just have the water. But if you said "I'll have a whisky and tapwater please" and they said "Sorry, we don't do tapwater, only bottled water" then you've had it...

Hmm. So some vague basis in fact, then...

Is that in the UK, cloviscat? What sort of legislation does it turn up in?... I'm guessing service regulations, that kinda thing?

Oh, and for the answers folks... google 0, h2g2 1

Don't most businesses in the UK have water meters these days? Tap water might be so cheap as to be *virtually* free, but they still have to pay for it, whether by meter or by water rates.

Hmm, puts me in mind of another common conviction... that if something has a price sticker on it that says '£10', the shop has to sell that item for £10...

Whereas in reality any sale is a mutual agreement, so they can simply decide not to sell...

(an interesting related case cropped up recently when Amazon accidentally advertised a gadget worth over £100 for around £10... they may have been obliged to honour sales where money had already changed hands, I'm not sure, but other than that they weren't liable...)

In australia you used to be able to get a glass of water free,then they began to charge you for the glass,now if you want water they direct you to the bottles of water they have for sale! ! They only time you get free water now is if you are really sloshed and then you have to ask really nicely,you might get a glass of water after a bit of grumbling (of course they will charge you for the glass)

26199

The query - if I remember aright - started from a point similar to the one raised here - a cyclist who wanted to stop at an out of town shopping complex and fill up his water bottle. Yes, it was UK, scotland in fact. In the hunting we did throught he sources at work (alas no longer available to me) we found the various water legislations. The stuff about a glass of water starts, I think, from the idea that a pub landlord shouldn't 'force' you to drink alcohol, but must have at least water available as a non-alccoholic drink. Can't guarantee it thogh, and the HMSO search engine is pants, so it won't be easy to confirm

I wish I could count - from my retail days the number of times I came across that "if there are two prices on something you have to sell it to me at the cheaper price" ruse. Yeah right. "No sir - I just refuse to sell the £9 shirt you've just decorated with a 50p pricetag off a keyring - Next customer please!"

By a strange coincidence I had lunch today in a Halifax (Canada) 'pub' which had on the menu:

Spring Water - $1.25
House Water - $1.25

I had never seen the like but because of this thread it caught my eye. I suppose in the interest of good h2g2 researching I ought to have asked but it was noisy grotty pub and the staff were most unfriendly.
So I make the following assumptions:
The first was probably the usual sort of bottled Evian etc and the second was presumably from the tap, the same highly fluridated and chlorined mixture one can enjoy at home for free. Neither appeared to be good value so I had an which was more than sufficient to wash down the lunch.


~jwf~