Luton pub and Hatters receive generous donation from Scandanavian Supporters' Club

The landlady of a pub in Luton was left overwhelmed when she received a £1,000 donation from the Luton Town Supporters’ Club of Scandinavia.

Alison Taylor, landlady of The Bricklayers Arms, received the news this week, and the supporters’ club also made a £1,000 donation to Luton Town Football Club.

Alison said: “They are a great group, they have also donated £1,000 to the football club.

“They have been coming here for 15 years, and the friendships have built up over the years.

“There are two or three that come over quite regularly and then a big group comes once a year for a match that they sponsor.

“I went with them to a home game before the season got suspended.

“We are really close, we have been to weddings and birthdays over there, I call them my Norwegian family.

“They are all so lovely and kind, this donation is really generous and I was really overwhelmed by it, it’s such a lovely gesture.

“The money will help towards the bills and help keep us going, we’re not sure how long it will be until we can open, we are really grateful for their support.”

Luton Town Supporters’ Club of Scandinavia was founded in 1991.

Thomas Moller, of the Luton Town Supporters’ Club of Scandinavia, said: “Our mission is to support. We support the club and the pub.

“All funds we generate through small annual membership fees stack up over time, and then we can do occasional donations.

“The corona situation is extraordinary. We created an online crowdfunding aiming to generate £1,000 to both the club and the pub - and succeeded!

“Due to the circumstances we are not able to present the donations in person.

“We really look forward to visiting Luton once the travel restrictions are eased. Even though we probably won’t be able to attend any matches for some time, we’ll surely pay Alison and the Brickies a visit when we can fly out of Norway and into the UK!”

Alison has been landlady of the pub on High Town Road for 34 years. Her pub has been closed since March 20.

She added: "I'm not sure when we will be able to reopen, they will need to give the pubs notice before opening so we get the orders in and they will need to let the breweries know so they can start producing beer again.

"I think realistically bank holiday weekend in August, I think it needs to be safe so that there's not a second peak.

"It will be difficult to maintain social distancing in here, we do have outside seating which will be used, but I know that so many of our regulars will want to come down as soon as they can so I'm not sure how they will be able to keep the two metres.

"It has been difficult, we have a virtual pub group on Facebook and some of the regulars have been doing quiz nights which have been fun, we are trying to keep the community together during this difficult time."

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