Hookahs in the United Kingdom

Hookahs in the United Kingdom are pretty popular and many hookah cafes are open in various cities in the United Kingdom. These cafes are usually known as “shisha bars” and are most commonly found in larger cities. Around Edgware Road in London you can easily find many hookah shops open which rent out hookahs to customers. This is one of the most over populated hookah regions in the United Kingdom. However, most hookah cafes are in southern cities in the United Kingdom. There are also quite a few hookah bars in both Bradford and Leeds.

Smoking Ban

In England during the summer of 2007 (also Scotland in 2006) smoking laws were put in place to restrict people from smoking in public buildings. Due to this new law people in England and Scotland can only smoke hookahs outside now and can no longer visit hookah bars or cafes.

In Indian restaurants in the United Kingdom you can regularly find hookahs. However they are even more popular in Lebanese restaurants and “hubbly bubbly” bars ran by people with Egyptian roots.

Most of these hookah bars are set up in prime locations near where the majority of their customer base is located. Before hookahs were smoked for culture and tradition reasons but now many teenagers and young adults smoke hookah as well so you can easily find hookah cafes near University campuses.

Hookah businesses in the United Kingdom are continuing to open on a regular basis. Now the profitability of opening a hookah business is so great from the popularity of hookahs in the United Kingdom people are running hookah shops without a cultural attachment to hookahs.