‘Not going out.’ Is it last orders for London’s nightlife?

From London to Hong Kong, bars, pubs and clubs have faced an onslaught of problems since the coronavirus pandemic forced nightlife into hibernation.

It’s Thursday, 11.00 p.m., and on a street in London’s Soho district, there’s a loud clatter. Staff are closing the windows in The French House, one of the city’s most popular pubs. Lesley Lewis, its owner of 35 years, says she would like to stay open later, but her staff would have trouble getting home as there are few transport options. And her patrons aren’t drinking as much as they used to. “People haven’t got the money,” she told CNN. It’s a problem shared by many other pubs, bars and nightclubs in some of the world’s biggest cities since the coronavirus pandemic plunged them into crisis four years ago. In London, a cost-of-living crisis that forced people to spend less or simply stay at home has collided with rocketing rents, energy bills and wages, vaporizing profit margins for hospitality businesses and pushing many past the point of no return. Since March 2020, more than 3,000 night-time venues have shut down across Britain’s capital and its outskirts, according to the Night Time Industries Association. That’s a decline of 15% compared with the pre-pandemic number, and the steepest fall for any region of the country apart from Wales.