On London Extra: Nightlife conundrums

We need pubs and clubs to thrive, but there are balances to strike. Plus borough town architects, Tory London-bashing, departures, arrivals and a film called Blitz

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"Everyone will have their own experiences of London's rapidly declining night life," writes Conservative London Assembly member Emma Best in a report entitled Fixing London's Nightlife. The sector, she continues, "is now in desperate and urgent need of help". Best also writes: "Pubs and clubs have closed in London at a faster rate than anywhere else the country since the pandemic."

And yet in March, City Hall economists published data telling a different story. Citing Office for National Statistics figures for 2022 (those for 2023 weren't yet available), they said the number of pubs in London "had stabilised at around 3,500" reflecting "an overall UK trend" while the number of licensed premises as a whole in the city had risen to 5,000, a 17 per cent increase compared with ten years earlier.

According to them, "the number of pubs, bars and nightclubs with 24-hour alcohol licenses in London jumped to 183 in 2021/22 from a level fluctuating between 50-60 over 2011/12 to 2017/18.

The City Hall data, all contained in the evidence base for the Sadiq Khan's 24 Hour City strategy, also show that in the past ten years both licensed premises as a whole and those with 24-hour licenses have increased by a greater rate in Greater London than in Greater Manchester and the West Midlands. Yet according to Best, the Mayor's inadequacy in this policy area means London's nightlife has declined compared with those of Manchester and Liverpool. 

Is the London night time glass getting empty or is it fuller than you might have heard? You will have spotted that like with like have not quite been being compared. For example, Best talks about "more than 3,000 pubs and clubs closing in and around London since March 2020," seemingly referring to the 3,011 the Night Time Industries lobby group recently said were lost in London and surrounding areas between March 2020 and December 2023.

And yes, you guessed it, her 14-page report is a compilation of "industry-led solutions" suggested by that very lobby group, along with such as the chairman of LGBT+ Conservatives and the director of communications for free market think tank the Adam Smith Institute.