Will London Ever Be a 24-Hour City?
Words by Christina Dean
City Hall meetings featuring representatives from the nighttime industries show that London’s nightlife is not in great health
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has acknowledged that there have been challenges for London, as there have been for all global cities, post-pandemic but public meetings led by the London Assembly at the beginning of August paint a much bleaker picture.
Jo May of the Soho Business Alliance stated that “Soho’s rolling up the pavements at 11pm” and Mark Williams, deputy chief executive of the Heart of London Business Alliance, listed off myriad reasons why the West End’s nighttime economy has been “underperforming”, including “high living costs, supply disruption, high operating costs, staff shortages, overcrowding on streets, and with an ineffective public realm, limited step-free access to stations, an increase in anti-social behaviour and a lack of facilities.”
Throw in plateauing levels of footfall post-pandemic and restrictive licensing laws implemented by councils and it feels like the perfect storm. The dream of a 24-hour London, something that Sadiq Khan has been aiming for since 2017, feels further away than ever – especially when you look at other cities around the world.
Amsterdam, a nightlife pioneer, started introducing 24-hour licences for venues back in 2013. Berlin, another city famous for its clubbing, has no restrictions on when alcohol can be sold and trains that operate 24 hours on the weekends. In 2018, the local government put a million euros into a fund for soundproofing clubs to reduce potential noise complaints (whereas Islington pub the Compton Arms was forced into a licence review in 2022 after just four residents made noise complaints). And in 2024, the city’s techno scene was added to UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list, underscoring its significant contribution to the culture of Berlin. Montreal is exploring the possibility of introducing a 24-hour nightlife district with plans and consultations having been implemented earlier this year.
These extended licences aren’t just about giving people more places to party – two recent recipients of 24-hour licences in Amsterdam were restaurants – they employ vast numbers of people and contribute huge amounts of money to economies.
So while other cities are recognising the value of nightlife, investing in the sector and protecting it by law, on these shores it seems to be slipping away at an alarming rate. 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. The organisation also described 2023 as the most challenging year for the sector since the Trust was founded in 2014.
The figures for the capital are pretty grim too. The Mayor of London’s 2019 Cultural Infrastructure Plan reported that in the last decade, 35% of grassroots venues and 61% of LGBTQ+ venues in London closed and over the next five years, the city was set to lose 24% of its artists’ workspaces. City Hall figures show that London suffered a net loss of about 40 pubs in the year to March 2023 and recent data from the Night Time Industries Association revealed that more than 3000 pubs, bars and nightclubs closed in London and the surrounding areas between March 2020 to spring 2024. On that last statistic, the Mayor of London’s office has been keen to stress that those figures cover 85 local authorities, so that’s London’s 33 councils plus 52 additional councils from the commuter belt, but that’s still more than any other region.
The Borderline, The Coronet, Plastic People, and Madame Jojo’s are just a handful of the places we’ve lost in the last decade and in the past few months, Boxpark Shoreditch and Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club have become two of the latest venues to have their fates up in the air. Thankfully BGWMC has been given a lifeline – after the building was put at risk by the owner wanting to sell, a campaign was launched to save the space and Tower Hamlets has now designated it an Asset of Community Value, meaning it can be purchased by the local community.
Sadly that positive outcome is an all too rare occurrence. In February of this year, Jeremy Joseph, owner of legendary LGBTQ+ club Heaven, revealed that the venue was at risk of closing because the landlord (The Arch Company) was attempting to raise the rent by a whopping £320,000 per year – after an £80,000 increase the previous September. In an Instagram post at the time he wrote: “the fight has just begun as it’s time to put public pressure on Landlords, this isn’t just about Heaven, this is about every Hospitality venue because if our rent goes up, it will increase the rent of other venues.” The club remains operational for the moment.
12 years and almost £100 million in revenue later, it was announced this summer that Boxpark in Shoreditch would be making way for the Bishopsgate Goodsyard development. Though the venue was operating on a ‘meanwhile use’ tenancy (where businesses can occupy unused spaces on a temporary basis), the NTIA is campaigning to save the site on the basis of its cultural impact on the area and, because the redevelopment work wouldn’t begin immediately, the site would be left derelict, likely for six months but potentially longer. And last year the biggest redevelopment casualty was Printworks, which shut up shop after six glorious years so that British Land and fund AustralianSuper could overhaul the Surrey Quays site – though there are plans in place to reopen Printworks as a cultural venue alongside retail units and workspaces.
Even unrelated development projects have had ripple effects on nightlife venues. Works from both Crossrail and on the St Giles and Denmark Street area impacted Goslett Yard, the Soho street where G-A-Y Late was located, resulting in the area of the Yard being used for public parking, often blocking the entrance, fire exit and queue area for the club. Owner Jeremy Joseph cited this as one of the reasons behind the closure of the club in December 2023, with safety concerns also being a contributing factor. Both customers and staff had been attacked going to and from the venue, and there was not enough support to tackle this due to police understaffing. As he stated in the announcement of the closure, “Crime continues to be one of the biggest issues for LGBT venues, but even harder when you are at a venue with no other venues around you.”
Sub-standard safety practices almost put paid to Brixton Academy, after Rebeca Ikumelo and Gaby Hutchinson died following a crush at an Asake gig at the venue on 15th December 2022. Investigations into the incident revealed insufficient staffing levels and a culture of staff taking bribes to allow non-ticketholders into events. The NTIA spearheaded a campaign to keep the historic venue open, with new security measures in place, and last September Lambeth Council confirmed that Brixton Academy would be allowed to operate once more.
Venues falling under the jurisdiction of other local authorities haven’t been so lucky. Following a wave of gentrification in Dalston in the late noughties and early 2010s, clubs and bars were fighting for survival as property developers moved in. Dance Tunnel and Birthdays shut in 2016, followed by The Nest, The Alibi, Visions and Efes (which since turned into EartH) two years later, the same year that Hackney Council pushed through a licensing policy that meant new venues would have to operate with a midnight curfew on weekends, effectively slamming the door on nightlife in the area.
Though there have been some glimmers of hope for the city’s nightlife scene, again evidenced by Kingsland Road, which is enjoying something of a resurgence, over the last few years, a new phenomenon has been thrown into the mix: a cost-of-living crisis. Rising costs, like energy bills, have massively impacted operators but there have been numerous knock-on effects for punters. People have less disposable income and can’t afford to go out all the time, especially when £6+ pints are becoming the norm, and without reliable, round-the-clock public transport, travel costs build up too.
Though London has had a Night Czar since 2016, Amy Lamé, who (according to the Mayor of London’s website) is “tasked with ensuring London thrives as a 24-hour city. Amy’s role involves championing London’s nightlife both in the UK and internationally, including safeguarding venues across the city”. She’s remunerated for that role to the tune of £132,846 a year, and many believe that given the size of that number and the rate of venue closures, she’s not been fulfilling her role well enough.
In response to a request for comment from Lamé, a spokesperson for the Mayor of London said: “From the West End to town centres and high streets across the capital, London’s nightlife is integral to our economic and social life.
“But venues have faced huge challenges in recent years due to the devastating effects of the pandemic, rising rents and business rates, staff shortages and the increased costs of living and doing business under the previous government. Despite the significant challenges faced, London’s hospitality industry revenue grew to £46bn in 2023.
“We have been doing all we can to support the capital’s hospitality industry during this time. This includes increased protections for venues in the London Plan, working with boroughs to make licensing easier and providing advice and support to businesses. The Mayor has also committed to a new Nightlife Taskforce to support the capital’s nightlife. There is much more work to be done and we will continue to do all we can to support London at night.”
The Mayor’s press office also shared information about the Night Czar’s work, which has included the establishment of a £500,000 programme to create new Night Time Enterprise Zones in the capital; launching the Women’s Night Safety Charter; assisting the launch the £2.3m Culture at Risk Business Support Fund during the pandemic; abolishing Form 696 with the Met; advocating for better pay and conditions for the 1.3m night workers in London; and both protecting hundreds of venues from closure (including The George Tavern, Fabric and the 100 Club) and securing new openings (including Drumsheds, The Beams, and Here and the Lower Third at Outernet).
Losing Fabric (which temporarily had its licence revoked in 2016 following drug-related deaths at the club) would have been a travesty. Large, shiny venues like Here and Drumsheds, with their capacity for large events and high-spec productions, have been big additions to the city. Drumsheds particularly has gone from strength to strength, as Broadwick Live’s Director of Music Ajay Jayaram would attest to. “London nightlife is in a constant state of flux, but with a multitude of collaborations happening in the city (such as BWL presents) promoters and venues including Drumsheds are working together to keep London’s rich nightlife alive,” he said. “Our partners are collectively responsible for shaping global music culture today right here in London, which is why under the umbrella of a single set we aspire to cover many bases; across the 20+ shows in this run, we feel we have achieved that, and we cannot wait to welcome everyone to the venue for another season of adventures.”
The likes of The Glove That Fits in Hackney and Venue MOT in Bermondsey are flying the flag for small-capacity, intimate venues, and there’s exciting programming happening at clubs like Fold and The Cause. But is that really enough for a city like London, one which purports to be a global capital for arts and culture? When it comes to nightlife, the city’s cup should be overflowing with options, not running drier. There are people in positions of authority, who are being paid handsomely to improve the sector while business owners are working hard to operate venues in ever increasingly difficult circumstances. Clearly the balance needs to swing much further in favour of the latter if London is ever going to become the 24-hour city the Mayor dreams of.
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