The tragic demise of nightclubs

Night clubbing is worth it

September 30, 2024 7:00 am

When was the last time you went to a club? If you’re like me and have more salt than pepper these days, maybe heed the saying that “nothing good can happen to a middle-aged man after midnight” – and just go home.

The problem for Britain’s once-thriving night-time economy is that this appears to be the attitude of a growing number of Generation Z too.

Whether you go out regularly or just once during the Christmas period, there should be major economic, cultural and social concern. We urgently need intervention from our new government.

Two recent news stories made the extent of the crisis clear. The first found that 480 nightclubs have closed since the pandemic, with 65 closed in the first half of this year alone. This reinforces the grim picture revealed by the other story: the unstoppable rate of pub closures, more than 50 a month in England and Wales. To put it bluntly, three nightclubs are closing every week, with Yorkshire and the South West hardest hit.

Especially given the fact that so many jobs will be lost as a result, this is a damaging difference for our culture.

Fortunately, the legendary Exeter “Timepiece” clock, in which both I and, decades later, my younger daughter spent much of our student years, survived. Perhaps it is its celebrated reputation as “the easiest place to get to in Europe” (Tatler) is a reason; Perhaps the depressing lack of alternatives is another reason.

Generations of students and “townies” have seen each other on a crowded dance floor, although perhaps no longer to The Cure’s “Love Cats” at Thursday’s “Goth Nights.” Many of my fondest memories involve the clock – or Croydon’s Green Dragon, Brixton’s Fridge and Soho’s Wag or Gossip’s Clubs; The more smoky, alcoholic and sweaty, the better.

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Sadly, this was back when students like me were receiving scholarships to go to university, which wasn’t a huge debt burden, and the average price of a pint in 1985 was 77p.

Today, a combination of debt, the cost of living crisis, rising alcohol prices and changing tastes are taking their toll. Economic factors, reliance on digital devices, the rise of gaming and TikTok, and over-anxious parents have all contributed to a decline in late-night socializing.

Remember the social death of being home alone on a Saturday night? This is no longer the case when your friends are also at home and “socializing” on the airwaves.

The sheer cost and increasingly diverse cultural backgrounds also mean that our youth’s relationship with alcohol has changed. Going out for hot chocolate is now “a thing,” or at least a TikTok trend.

It’s clearly a positive that our young ones no longer need to get smashed to have a good time, and maybe I really am an old boomer fool, but every nightclub that closes means the death of thousands of future thrills and romantic encounters – entirely not to mention valuable jobs.

Nightclubbing is worth fighting for, whether you dance or not.