For this summer’s World Cup, London’s pubs, bars and restaurants are fixated on a goal that won’t be scored in the US — instead, it takes the form of packed tables and record rounds on home turf.
A major football bounce is on the menu for hospitality, which has suffered a desultory few seasons, swallowing almost £7 billion of tax rises over the course of the past two Budgets, according to UKHospitality. That has led to thousands of closures: two pubs had their final last orders every day in the first quarter of 2026. Overall hospitality closures are forecast to hit six a day this year.
