When was the last time you did a proper all-nighter in London? With £7 pints, rising ticket prices, mass club closures, licensing restrictions, sluggish night buses, noise complaints and venue curfews, hunting down a place to party until sunrise feels like an increasingly impossible pursuit. And worse still, there’s not even anywhere left to grab a commiseratory bite to eat afterwards.
The latest late-night venue to go under is Tiger Tiger, the Piccadilly Circus restaurant and club, which yesterday announced its closure (the group’s Croydon outpost disappeared long ago, in 2017). Tiger Tiger had long ceased to be much of a player in clubworld — it had reportedly been operating at a loss for years — but it still managed to operate for more than a quarter of a century, first welcoming guests in 1998. And while it hardly known as a top-flight hangout — the opposite is closer to the truth, especially with recent calamities — it was somewhere that offered cheap drinks and somewhere to party. It was trashy, but sometimes, that’s what’s wanted. Set to become a luxury hotel, its closure is another sign that London is no longer able, or indeed willing, to cater to anyone but the super wealthy.
It’s no wonder that so many Londoners were puzzled and annoyed when the Mayor Sadiq Khan and the city’s former night czar Amy Lamé both claimed that the capital was leading the way as a 24-hour economy earlier this year.
In an interview with BBC Politics London, Lamé, who had been responsible for promoting and safeguarding the city’s nightlife alongside Khan ,since 2016 until her resignation earlier this month (in exchange for a salary of £132,846 a year), insisted that she was “helping London thrive as a 24-hour city” after inheriting an “absolute mess” from previous mayor Boris Johnson.
Citing one example of progress, she pointed to the roll-out of Night Time Enterprise Zones in Bromley, Woolwich and Vauxhall, which have led to an increased high street footfall after 6pm.Look, it’s a good start, but having the freedom to purchase a cheeky Greggs steak bake ready for the last train home is hardly on a par with stumbling out of Berlin’s Berghain nightclub as the dawn chorus sounds, and immediately ambling off to an all-night restaurant for a restorative slap-up meal.
Her remarks didn’t go down well, to say the least. This may be because, despite the unwavering optimism of the Mayor’s office, the reality of the situation is far gloomier. Forty-six London pubs went under in just six months last year — the fastest rate of closures in the whole of the UK — according to analysis by Altus Group. In the year since, another 40 have gone too.
While Berlin is also struggling due to the cost-of-living crisis, the nightlife sector brought in €1.7 billion to the city’s economy during its 2018 boom.
According to the Night Time Industries Association, 31 per cent of the UK’s nightclubs, amounting to more than 1,000 venues, have been forced to close following the pandemic. They have suffered rent rises, a decrease in customer footfall, noise complaints, licensing issues and been forced out by developers.“Personally, I have never seen it as bad as it is now,” says Bobby Hiddleston, from London cocktail spot Swift.
“Licensing is impossibly tight now, with absolutely nothing being granted after 10 or 11pm. Noise complaints seem to be much more frequent as well. I have a lot of empathy for people who are disturbed in their homes by noise, but there has to be some leeway considering they have moved into areas long known for noise.
“It feels as if the councils are only listening to the residents and not the businesses at all. The residents absolutely deserve their voice, but it is very one-sided right now.”
Responding to the Mayor’s claims that London is a city that never sleeps, Michael Kill, chief executive of the Night Time Industries Association, says: “It’s not the case.”
Far from it, the capital seems to be going to bed earlier, and earlier, and Tiger Tiger, which used to shut at 3am, is only the latest example. When councils are granting licences, Kill explains, the lead consideration is nearly always around crime. “Is it going to increase crime? Is it not going to increase crime? No one ever sits there and says, right, is it going to be good for the community? Is it going to be good for the local economy? We don’t approach licensing or after dark in a way that it’s a value asset. We approach it as if… it’s so burdensome that it’s almost oppressive. The challenge that we have is that we’ve got to change that rhetoric.”
The city’s many watering holes have tough times ahead as the cost-of-living crisis has left consumers with less cash in their pockets. Rather reductively, some people have blamed nightclubs’ recent struggles on a rising cohort of Gen-Zers who hate boozing.
While it’s certainly true that fewer young people drink (according to DrinkAware, 26 per cent of them don’t drink alcohol at all) this still feels like an incredibly simplistic take that overlooks the real economic issues at play.
Take for example London’s latest cohort of students; traditionally, some of the biggest hedonists in the city, but now saddled with university fees amounting to more than £9,000 a year. The average cost of privately-rented student accommodation is £19,706 per academic year, according to PwC analysis. This is 150 per cent higher than the maximum available maintenance loan. Instead of chugging down jägerbombs, a record 55 per cent of students are now working a part-time job.
“The idea of Gen Z drinking less is in my opinion a lazy justification as to why nightlife in London is down,” says Chris Tanner, owner of Soho’s Dram Bar. “In my opinion, drinking culture as a whole has shifted and businesses aren’t able to be responsive to this due to issues with nightlife infrastructure such as a lack of transport and security.”
We don’t approach licensing or after dark in a way that it’s a value asset. We approach it as if… it’s so burdensome that it’s almost oppressive. We’ve got to change that rhetoric
“I believe wholeheartedly that this is based around the cost of daily living, and the fact that the cost of going out has gone up,” says Kills. “Many of these businesses are effectively paying 30 to 40 per cent more to operate their businesses, and they’ve had to pass that on [to consumers] to a certain point. But we’re also seeing a 15 to 20 per cent downturn in trade where consumers have got less disposable income.
“That’s a perfect squeeze,” he says. “An increase in price impacts on frequency of visit, dwell time, and spend. Where we’d have flourishing midweek student sessions, predominantly… they’re just not there. It’s a very different make-up. People are going to supermarkets and pre-loading and then going out later in the evening.”
Another issue is that, beyond the visible face of London’s struggling nightlife sector, we simply don’t have the wider infrastructure to support a 24-hour economy in London. Workers in the night-time economy, who quite literally allow things to keep running, face a litany of additional obstacles according to joint research by UCL’s Urban Innovation and Policy Lab, and the Royal College of Nursing.
The 2019 study found that more than a third of London’s 1.6 million night-time workers earned less than the London Living Wage, and were further impacted by slow or unsafe transport home from work, a lack of healthy food or other retail options, and fewer opportunities to relax and socialise outside of work.
“I usually finish around 1am and if I’m looking to go out there aren’t many options,” says Fabio Spinetti of The Donovan Bar. “There are some places, but not the type of places for a nightcap, such as a bar where you can get a civilised cocktail.”
“At STEREO our team tends to finish at 4am,” Aaron Millman, NightLife Creative at STEREO, tells me. “It can be hugely challenging for them to get home, especially regarding safety.”
Despite being based in Covent Garden, which is served by the night Tube, Millman has noticed team members opting for Ubers instead due to safety concerns. “This is hugely disappointing,” he says.
Tanner agrees: “These issues then translate to challenges in terms of staffing because how can we expect people to work a late-night shift when they’ll get home at around 3 or 4am and won’t have a way to get home safely?”
How can we expect people to work a late-night shift when they’ll get home at around 3 or 4am and won’t have a way to get home safely?
Nurses, and other emergency workers, are of course another crucial piece of the puzzle. “It’s crucial for the city’s politicians to acknowledge the critical role nursing staff play in keeping Londoners safe when things go wrong,” says Lisa Elliott, London director of the Royal College of Nursing. “Nursing staff consistently work through the night to keep health services running, without which the city could not function safely. However, for many, this comes at great personal cost and inconvenience due to reduced transport services and expensive journeys to and from work,” she says.
While London police officers are entitled to free travel on public transport, nursing staff do not enjoy the same benefits.
“The night-time industries across the country have faced huge challenges in recent years, due to the ongoing impact of the pandemic, rising rents and business rates, staffing shortages due to Brexit, and the Government’s cost-of-living and cost-of-doing-business crisis,” a spokesman from the Mayor’s Office told the Standard. “The Mayor continues to work closely with businesses, venues, boroughs and Londoners to support them throughout these challenges and last year London’s hospitality industry sales outpaced the rest of the UK.
“They know challenges remain and will continue to do all they can to protect and support venues across the capital and help new ones to open, stand up for the 1.3 million Londoners who work evenings and nights to ensure better pay and conditions, and put women’s safety at the heart of our work.”
More is needed than protection; this city needs a late-night revival. It needs more support. At the moment, as the loss of Tiger Tiger shows, it has lost its claws.
