London pubs
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149 Londoners have responded | 28/02/2019 - 28/05/2019

Did you know there are 3,530 working pubs in London - a 27% reduction since 2001.
The Mayor’s Culture team are currently looking at how Londoners use pubs, and what the future of pubs will look like.
Pubs play a vital role bringing people together in many communities – besides drinking and sport, many are also used as meeting or work spaces, or provide other community services.
What do you think? Have you noticed pub closures in your area? What do you use pubs for and how often do you go?
The discussion ran from 28 February 2019 - 28 May 2019
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Log into your accountElisa
Community Member 6 years agoIn the survey, I was initially referring to country pubs. These are a great asset to this country and in many places serve good food that is cooked inidividually by a chef, as well as having alot of character and rich history. In London...
Show full commentIn the survey, I was initially referring to country pubs. These are a great asset to this country and in many places serve good food that is cooked inidividually by a chef, as well as having alot of character and rich history. In London, there are a few good pubs here and there with similar characterisitics and a comnunity feel, but the vast majority have no character any more and are part of boring chains. Some do, however, serve good beer and that is worth going there for from time to time.
Show less of commentLrobbo89
Community Member 6 years agoAs a Northerner in London - London pubs are too expensive, too noisy and too often claimed by the masses of city boys after work!
Up north if you want to be cramped in standing, unable to hear one another and drinking for the sake of...
Show full commentAs a Northerner in London - London pubs are too expensive, too noisy and too often claimed by the masses of city boys after work!
Up north if you want to be cramped in standing, unable to hear one another and drinking for the sake of forgetting your bad working day - you go clubbing!
If you want to actually sit and chat to people, maybe eat while you’re there, and enjoy a drink and a catch up with friends - you go to the pub.
London doesn’t seem to grasp that - it’s full of fancy overpriced bars that sell terrible watery beer and play loud popular music and are like clubs for people who don’t look young enough to be asked for ID anymore (I’m verging on 30 and these bars make me feel like I’m trying to hang on to my student days with the population of Tinder)
There are some lovely pubs further out - where you can enjoy a pint, food, catching up with mates but Central London is hopeless.
Show less of commentAnonymous - account deleted
Community Member 6 years agoThere's an anonymity, a tolerance and acceptance in pubs that is hard to find elsewhere. You can have a meal or not, drink alchohol or soda water, sit on your own or meet with friends, stay five minutes or five hours. You can read a book...
Show full commentThere's an anonymity, a tolerance and acceptance in pubs that is hard to find elsewhere. You can have a meal or not, drink alchohol or soda water, sit on your own or meet with friends, stay five minutes or five hours. You can read a book or a newspaper or work on your laptop or talk to friends or talk to strangers. The staff in most pubs are friendly and welcoming. If you're out and about and need to go to the loo or change a baby's nappy, a public house is the easiest place to pop into. They provide a wonderful service to the community. The range of beers has become very exciting, as has the range of non-alcoholic drinks. Along with the amazing theatre in London, its public houses are one of the cities greatest assets.
Show less of commentsablepeter
Community Member 6 years agoThere seems to be a move from community to commercial in a lot of businesses. Trends dictating the offering rather than a broad based local space
There seems to be a move from community to commercial in a lot of businesses. Trends dictating the offering rather than a broad based local space
Jaina
Community Member 6 years agoIn my early 20s, I used to go to fancy bars with dim lighting and expensive cocktails with music. In my late 20s, I started to meet friends at pubs because I was more interested in having a quiet calm place to catch up over a drink and some...
Show full commentIn my early 20s, I used to go to fancy bars with dim lighting and expensive cocktails with music. In my late 20s, I started to meet friends at pubs because I was more interested in having a quiet calm place to catch up over a drink and some nibbles. But I came to notice that the music was always soo loud in pubs and if it was a busy pub you couldn't even hear each other talk. So now I just go to restaurants.
Being stood awkwardly with friends or work colleagues in a packed pub which is soo loud because everyone is trying to talking over each other and the loud music is not my idea of fun. Those momemnts where you can't hear each other so you just nod and smile a lot. Or having to squeeze past groups of people with drinks in their hands to get to the bar and then wait ages to be served.
All I want from a pub is a nice clean place, somewhere to sit, ability to walk around without asking someone at every step if you could squeeze through, better queuing system to be served(!), low noise levels and a good selection of nibbles (for those that don't want a proper meal) all at decent prices. Clean toilets would be nice too!
Show less of commentMeJL
Community Member 6 years agoTend to agree with most of these comments, none of which the survery questions really pick up on. The bottom line all over London is that rents are prohibitive and this drives the heart out of the communities, as the large landlords and...
Show full commentTend to agree with most of these comments, none of which the survery questions really pick up on. The bottom line all over London is that rents are prohibitive and this drives the heart out of the communities, as the large landlords and politicians in planning mostly have no sense of community or heritiage and so all kinds of useless businesses come in and go bust, which serves no one except landlords. Marylebone where i live has only a couple of really good and tasty restaurants now, where the chefs can really cook and love cooking - the rest, including pubs, are just food of sorts cooked by average cooks with a lot of hype, noise and poor service and very inflated and self-entitled 'wannabe' customers who come into the area to be seen. There is too much drinking in desperation to boost fragile egos in our cut-throat greedy office culture and so pubs are noisy and useless for a quiet meal.
On the other hand, pubs - especailly old-fashioned, quiet and good pubs with home cooking - are part of our great UK Heritage and i wish there were more of them around. This - and most else wrong with London - really is about 'wannabe' too-wealthy-for-the-common-good' 'desperate to boost my ego and feel good about myself by drinking and being loud' culture from customers and businesses alike, and greedy already billionaires landlords.
Show less of commenthalconrudch
Community Member 6 years agoI believe they are important not just for London but for the UK in general. They are part of the history and heritage of this Country, and we are losing the history to the "new ways"
Show full commentI believe they are important not just for London but for the UK in general. They are part of the history and heritage of this Country, and we are losing the history to the "new ways"
Show less of commentian e
Community Member 6 years agoToo many pubs have become boring second rate restaurants
Show full commentToo many pubs have become boring second rate restaurants
Show less of commentJudy Hicks
Community Member 6 years agoI use pubs for regular meetings of the Royal Photographic Society - an educational Charity. They provide hospitality and usually private spaces in which to discuss our work and meet like-minded people. It is not necessary to drink alcohol...
Show full commentI use pubs for regular meetings of the Royal Photographic Society - an educational Charity. They provide hospitality and usually private spaces in which to discuss our work and meet like-minded people. It is not necessary to drink alcohol - as they all provide soft drinks and usually teas and coffees too...
They are important drop in spaces for Londoners, both for meetings, for catching up with friends and for socialising. Without them life would lose some of its richness.
Show less of commentAldetect
Community Member 6 years agoPubs give me the oppurtunity to meet with friends, family and afford me the chnace to make new friends. I would sugggest that taxes cause the prices to be too high and thus many people cannot afford a nice, simple drink and chat with locals...
Show full commentPubs give me the oppurtunity to meet with friends, family and afford me the chnace to make new friends. I would sugggest that taxes cause the prices to be too high and thus many people cannot afford a nice, simple drink and chat with locals and others. Prices need to come down so those of us who are no so well off can still enjoy these (once) affordable pleasures.
Show less of commentphil1edinburgh
Community Member 6 years agoI was amazed that there was no mention of the noise, anti social behaviour and mess (urinating in doorways and alleyways) that comes with pubs in centre of London particluarly in early hours and even in the morning with the...
Show full commentI was amazed that there was no mention of the noise, anti social behaviour and mess (urinating in doorways and alleyways) that comes with pubs in centre of London particluarly in early hours and even in the morning with the deliveries and the staff clearing into outside bins hundreds of bottles. Almost 24 hour drinking 7 days a week for most pubs should not be allowed.
Show less of commentjregan57
Community Member 6 years agoPubs have moved away from the conventional "pub" and we now have "bars" and theme pubs aimed that the younger generations not tradional pubs
Show full commentPubs have moved away from the conventional "pub" and we now have "bars" and theme pubs aimed that the younger generations not tradional pubs
Show less of commentLaureldebel
Community Member 6 years agoThey are the only places you can go to solely drink with friends, some offer bar food, and dining dependent on locality. You cannot get that choice anywhere else.
Show full commentThey are the only places you can go to solely drink with friends, some offer bar food, and dining dependent on locality. You cannot get that choice anywhere else.
Show less of commentTalk London
Official Representative 6 years agoThanks everyone for sharing your views on pubs in London.
Many venues for LGBT+ Londoners in particular have closed in recent years. What do these venues mean to you?
Talk London
Anonymous - account deleted
Community Member 6 years agoToastmaster Clubs often meet in pubs upstairs rooms
Anonymous - account deleted
Community Member 6 years agoPubs are quintessentially British, a part of our cultural heritage and identity, and provide an essential place to meet and socialise. Sadly they are being attacked on all fronts but principally through punative taxes that squeeze margins...
Show full commentPubs are quintessentially British, a part of our cultural heritage and identity, and provide an essential place to meet and socialise. Sadly they are being attacked on all fronts but principally through punative taxes that squeeze margins and permissive development management kowtowing to property developers. If we don't protect London's pubs we will end up with unappealing, sterile, generic, characterless neighbourhoods that could be anywhere in the world.
Show less of commentAnonymous - account deleted
Community Member 6 years agoI think there are much better things to do in life than go drinking in pubs. When I pass a pub and noise and the smell of stale beer wafts out into the street, I feel so sorry for the people inside, wasting their money.
Sometimes I'm...
Show full commentI think there are much better things to do in life than go drinking in pubs. When I pass a pub and noise and the smell of stale beer wafts out into the street, I feel so sorry for the people inside, wasting their money.
Sometimes I'm obliged to go to a pub, e.g. for a residents' association or allotment society meeting. I don't enjoy the experience.
Show less of commentTalk London
Official Representative 6 years agoHi Petermaughan
Thanks for taking part and sharing your experience.
What could encourage you to visit your local pubs more?
Talk London
MarkScott
Community Member 6 years agoI think London has a fairly healthy pub scene - there's a huge variety and it's impossible to generalise.
Pubs open & close all the time. It can be sad when a well-loved pub gets closed by some greedy PubCo or property speculator, against...
Show full commentI think London has a fairly healthy pub scene - there's a huge variety and it's impossible to generalise.
Pubs open & close all the time. It can be sad when a well-loved pub gets closed by some greedy PubCo or property speculator, against the wishes of its clientele - but on the other hand, if a place isn't popular or able to turn a profit for its owner/landlord, then it absolutely should close.
Communities can and should use the Assets of Community Value process to prevent the worst developer abuses.
Show less of commentcorky
Community Member 6 years agoI am just back from Seville in Spain where the drinking culture is very different. Bodegas are the nearest thing to pubs, but cafes and bars proliferate and offer bottled beer and small or large beers, plus snacks and meals and good coffee...
Show full commentI am just back from Seville in Spain where the drinking culture is very different. Bodegas are the nearest thing to pubs, but cafes and bars proliferate and offer bottled beer and small or large beers, plus snacks and meals and good coffee Continental style so no buckets of milky froth. The biggest differences are people live in the City so families are out using these facilities , price , two small beers €2-3
Here we have seen a move to warehouse pubs with stand at tables or high stools , happy hours , sports tv all attracting after work crowds but not elder friendly or family friendly. The work day is also different with schools out at 2pm or 3pm , siesta then out until late. Coming back I am struck by how shut in we are and how we have isolated ourselves into work mode, etc. I don’t know if we can rescue ourselves to a more humane way of living. Pubs could be part of that but there are much bigger issues at play.
Show less of commentAnonymous - account deleted
Community Member 6 years agoSuch a shame that so many pubs that had live music have closed. My local has room for bands to play but doesn't have any live music.
Show full commentSuch a shame that so many pubs that had live music have closed. My local has room for bands to play but doesn't have any live music.
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