Free venue page API | Bars.co.uk

A small venue page API

The response only identifies a published Bars.co.uk venue page and links to it. It does not return photos, food hygiene or other government data, coordinates, scores, community details, reports or mediation records.

Clear hotels, shops, restaurants, cafés, takeaways, event venues and casinos are not returned by this bar finder.

Search for a bar

Send a short venue name, place or postcode in the q value:

https://bars.co.uk/api/public/v1/venues?q=Gloucester

The response contains up to 20 matching venue-page links. An empty or very long search is rejected.

{
  "results": [{
    "publicVenueId": "6y4n8v",
    "name": "Sword Inn",
    "locality": "Gloucester",
    "nation": "England",
    "canonicalUrl": "https://bars.co.uk/england/gloucester/sword-inn/",
    "testRecord": false
  }],
  "scopeNotice": "This API only returns links to published venue pages on Bars.co.uk. It does not provide photos, government data, coordinates, scores, venue profiles, reports or mediation records."
}

Look up one venue page

A bar page shows its stable public ID. Use it to get the same small lookup result:

https://bars.co.uk/api/public/v1/venues/{publicVenueId}

An unknown ID returns a 404 problem response.

Use it from a website

Another website can read this API without sending sign-in details.

const response = await fetch(
  "https://bars.co.uk/api/public/v1/venues?q=York"
);

if (!response.ok) throw new Error("Bar search failed");
const { results } = await response.json();
for (const bar of results) {
  console.log(bar.name, bar.canonicalUrl);
}

Fair-use limit

One client can make 30 requests in any rolling 60-second period. Searches, venue-page lookups, unknown IDs and unchanged 304 responses count. Browser OPTIONS checks do not.

A 429 response includes Retry-After. Wait for that many seconds before trying again.

Where the full information lives

The linked bar page shows food hygiene information, source dates, licences, the responsibility score, community information, reports and any licensed photo. Those parts stay on the website so their explanations and attribution remain beside them.

See where website information comes from or read the service terms.