Much has been made of the state of London’s nightlife but what shape is it really in?
There’s a general consensus, amongst the generations that are old enough to remember going out in the pre-social media age at least, that nightlife in London is not what it once was. The statistics certainly don’t paint a particularly positive picture. In the Mayor of London’s 2019 Cultural Infrastructure Plan it was reported that in the last decade, 35% of grassroots venues and 61% of LGBTQ+ venues in London closed. A 2023 report from the Music Venue Trust stated that 16% of UK grassroots music venues were lost in the last 12 months, at a rate of two a week. In September last year, the Night Time Industries Association reported that 37% of UK clubs have closed since March 2020. News has just broken that Corsica Studios, one of the best clubs in London (and one that’s been operating for over 20 years) is closing in 2026.
Sadiq Kahn has been on a big push to try and reverse some of that decline. Following the resignation of Night Czar Amy Lamé in the autumn of 2024, he’s established a nightlife-specific taskforce to “examine and address the issues facing the industries, and provide recommendations on how to ensure the night-time economy can thrive”. He’s also received additional powers to overturn local council licensing decisions when they reject late licensing proposals from bars and other venues, and he’s created a fund to support the expansion of al fresco dining areas across the city. Even the councils themselves have been paying attention to nightlife, with Hackney Council launching its first-ever evening and nighttime strategy this summer.
Whether it’s working is another matter. Writing in The Monocle Minute in August, Robert Bound argued that Tate Modern extending its Friday and Saturday opening hours to 9pm is an “alarming reminder that London’s nightlife is fast asleep” and that “Tate Modern is a successful museum tentatively embracing the evening, not a failed Berghain. We shouldn’t confuse one with the other. But it begs a hoary old question: what is it about London and late nights? Have we become scared of the dark?”
Last year we asked will London ever be a 24 hour city? and it still looks a long way off in comparison to the likes of Berlin, Amsterdam, New York and Tokyo. A combination of restrictive licensing laws, plateauing footfall in the city, limited late-night transport options, high operating costs, and staffing shortages, both for the police and for venues, make for a challenging landscape. Higher wage bills caused by the increase in National Insurance contributions and the National Living Wage are forcing many hospitality operators to cut hours in an effort to save money, so the industry as a whole is really feeling the pinch.
And the same goes for punters. The cost-of-living crisis has impacted both the frequency with which people go out and how late they stay out – data from OpenTable and Zonal showed that the average time for a dinner booking is now 6.12pm. The price of pints regularly tops six quid and sparse late-night public transport options means that just getting home from places can turn into a real, and expensive, mission. The Night Tube only runs on two evenings a week, and only on a handful of lines, so outside of those parameters, you’re left with expensive cabs and surging Ubers. The days of going on a night out with £30 in your pocket – and getting back home again – are long gone. If you are watching your wallet, a night out is an easy expense to remove.
It’s often reported that Gen Z drink less than their older counterparts and that’s why they don’t go out as much. A recent Bevtrac survey suggests that there’s been a general trend towards moderation, rather than being specific to Gen Z, but the tendency for younger people to have less disposable income, especially during a time of rising costs, means that they spend less on booze. Sober curiosity has seen an uptick with a YouGov survey showing that over a third of UK drinkers consume low- and no-alcohol alternatives semi-regularly, a trend that’s been accompanied by more sober day raves, with the likes of RISE and SHINE and House of Happiness hosting regular events in London. There’s also been an increase in health-consciousness, with 29% of low and no drinkers stating that ‘health and medical’ concerns are a key reason for picking an alcohol alternative.
Even if you’re not a green-juice-lululemon-reformer-cold-plunge devotee, the growth in wellness (and pseudo-wellness) culture is undeniable. A Global Wellness Institute report shows that the UK’s wellness market was valued at $224 billion in 2022 and was one of the two fastest-growing wellness markets since 2020. Run clubs in the capital are more popular than ever, and saunas have been massively trending this year (Arc in Canary Wharf even hosts After Dark sauna parties) as people find new ways to socialise that don’t involve the pub, the club or the hangover.
For those still very much off the wagon, there are places to go out late in London. Brixton Storeys was the recipient of a 24-hour licence earlier this year, and then you’ve got nightclubs and bars like Fabric, Drumsheds, Fold, Venue MOT, The Cause, MOTH Club, Trisha’s and Dalston Superstore. Famous NYC jazz club Blue Note is opening in the city after Westminster Council finally granted it a full licence, and our own iconic jazz venue Ronnie Scott’s is opening a new space to host a revamped version of its Late Late Show. If you know where to look, you can also find bowls of hand-pulled noodles, green chilli cheeseburgers, and pancakes in the middle of the night too.
Should we have to look so hard though? A global city like London should be full of restaurants open late and clubs open even later. But is this lack of options a result of a lack of demand? Do Londoners really want to stay out all night?
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