The drunken carousing of customers at the Canonbury Tavern in Islington, North London, was so extreme that the owner was compelled to enact a bylaw banning couples from having sexual intercourse on the premises. That was in 1880. On Saturday night, customers welcomed the first weekend of new licensing laws in a more genteel fashion — with the clink of wine glasses and the crunch of focaccia bread.

As media reports predicted a return to Hogarthian scenes of debauchery, London’s well-heeled residents showed early signs of adjusting favourably to late licensing. At the Tavern, theatregoers enjoyed a post- performance drink and young couples expressed relief that they could follow a restaurant meal with a visit to the pub on the way home.

The change was noted by Wendy Woolnough, 26, the Tavern’s manager, who is planning to open daily until midnight. She said that her customers were already starting to appreciate the new laws. “It is not quite Parisian café culture but people are wandering in a little later and taking a little more time over their drinks,” she said. “It allows people to arrive and leave in a more orderly and civilised fashion. Our customers are grown-ups, and now we can treat them like grown-ups.”

The Tavern, in a leafy conservation area, is far from the cavernous city centre bars that have been blamed for encouraging binge-drinking. A lengthy wine list is scrawled in chalk on a blackboard above the bar, Belgian and German speciality beers are served by the bottle and the kitchen specialises in hearty meals such as corn-fed chicken and beef casserole.

At 6.30pm, Brian Mulldew, 45, a financier, and his wife, Janice, from nearby Highbury, settled into a leather sofa, each with a glass of Prosecco. Mr Mulldew said that they would be going to watch a Molière play but planned to return to the Tavern for a cognac at 11pm. “At last we are going to see a performance and enjoy a drink in the same evening,” he said. “It is liberating.”

Bar staff noticed a difference. Most customers arrived about 9.30pm whereas the previous weekend they had turned up an hour earlier. Jane Mccalaman, 34, a librarian from Kennington, said that her plans to meet her friend in the Tavern had been altered because of the later opening hours. Above the hum of a hundred customers, she explained that she felt less pressure to get to the Tavern earlier. “We met a little later tonight because we have an extra hour together,” she said.

The conservative Saturday hours of the Tavern contrasted with larger, rowdier bars on nearby Upper Street. Medicine Bar, where a queue of 30 revellers formed at midnight, served drinks until 3am; Walkabout, a branch of the Australian-themed chain, was open until 2am along with the King’s Head and The Mitre.

Earlier this year, Lord Simon of Highbury, an adviser to Tony Blair, was one of a number of the Tavern’s neighbours who objected to an application for a late licence. His objections were rejected by the council.

On Saturday night, a handful of regular customers arrived after 10.30pm. Angus Fear, 52, ordered a glass of Marqués de Riscal. He was accompanied by Tiggy, his Irish Terrier. Mr Fear, a member of the RAC Club in Westminster, said that the new laws meant that he would no longer be forced to meet friends at private clubs in Central London if they wanted a drink after 11pm. “This is my local, to which I have been coming for years, and now I have a choice,” he said.

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