To coincide with the recent Bank Holiday weekend, pub giant Greene King unveiled a beer garden vending machine at the Anchor Bankside pub in Southwark, London.

The machine is stocked with everything that customers might need to enjoy a day in a sunny beer garden. Pic above, taken from Anchor's Facebook.

As well as sunglasses and sun cream, guests could purchase flip-flops, shorts, hats and vests; all for a £1 each.

Apparently, the vending machine was introduced after the pub company conducted research which revealed that, on an average visit, 36% of Brits spend up to three hours on each beer garden visit.

Burning for a beer

Predictably, not everyone was as well prepared as they might have been.

Some 49% of those surveyed said they forgot to apply or bring sun cream with 38% of respondents saying that they had suffered sun burn.

Greene King chief commercial officer Phil Thomas said: 'When the sunshine comes we know there’s nothing better than getting outdoors and enjoying a pint in the sunshine , which is why we’re trialling the beer garden vending machine to ensure our guests don’t get caught out in the heat without the sunshine essentials.'

If successful, the PR stunt, sorry, the bold initiative could be rolled out to over 1,000 Greene King beer gardens up and down the country.

Scottish vending machines

Any suggestions for alternative items that Scottish beer garden vending machines might need?

In certain parts of the country a midge net would come in handy.

Obviously last summer was exceptionally hot and there have been a number of stunning summer days this year.

However, we can't help but feel that a warm jumper and a shower-proof mac might be more useful vending machine items for a beer garden during a typical Scottish summer.

The inclusion of sun cream seems superfluous. For many of Scotland's more enthusiastic sun worshippers wearing sun cream would defeat the entire purpose of those precious taps aff days.