This article is by James Murphy, based on his recent experience as a young person living in London. It was edited by Richard Murphy.
According to Breast Cancer UK, quoted in a recent article in The Independent, one in three people say that they need alcohol to get on the dancefloor. In other words, one in three people cannot walk into a social space without a drink in their hand. This rises to forty per cent amongst people aged 18 to 24, but this is not a quirky statistic about youth culture; it is a direct indictment of our cities, our policies, and our collective priorities.
If alternative hubs of connection existed, whether they be cafes, libraries, or community centres that are all too often invisible after dark, people would not be dependent upon locations where alcohol has to be used as a drug to overcome social fear of interaction. Young people are not choosing to drink; they are being forced into it. And society is quietly letting it happen.
The market has failed: alcohol has become the default social medium
The “night-time economy” has become a euphemism for the alcohol industry. If you are young and want to meet people, your choices are brutally limited: buy a drink or stay at home. Libraries and community centres close early, leaving no civic spaces open when people most need them. Cafes, although popular and incredibly well-used during the day, all seem to close just as the social day begins. They could be the ideal venues for open-mic nights, discussion groups, or late-evening events, but they very rarely are.
The evidence is clear. Research into conscious clubbing shows that young people want alternatives in the form of music, dance, and community without the haze of alcohol. These are not niche interests; they are the mainstream that is uncatered for in our market economy. Society has simply failed to provide what young people are already asking for.
The result is that the economics of social life are exclusionary. When every social interaction seems to involve a pub, wine bar, or licensed club of some sort, the art of making connections is reduced to being a monetised commodity. Those who can afford it join in. Those who can't, stay at home. Urban design and market forces have combined to turn social life itself into a privilege.
The cost: isolation, inequality, and ill health
There are real consequences of this.
First, the health impact is immense. Early and habitual dependence on alcohol is not a private vice; it has a social cost. Liver disease, cancer, and addiction strain public health systems already under pressure. When we talk about the “cost of living”, we should also talk about the cost of drinking.
Second, the social consequences are corrosive. Without sober spaces, young people withdraw from social interaction. Loneliness, anxiety, and disconnection rise. Community ties weaken. A society that forces its young people to drink to belong is a society in decay.
Third, the inequality is structural. Those who abstain for religious, ethical, or health reasons are excluded from mainstream social life, and those without disposable income are priced out entirely. This is not freedom of choice; it is a form of social coercion, built into the very fabric of our cities.
The alternative: third spaces as civic infrastructure
What we need are third spaces. These are places separate from home (the first space) and work (the second space) where people can gather, socialise, and build communities, often through informal and spontaneous interactions. Examples include cafes, libraries, parks, bars, and community centres that offer social environments beyond domestic and professional settings. The trouble is, most of these no longer exist. In that case, answers to the problems created by their absence are needed.
First, we need to stop pretending this is a lifestyle issue. It is an infrastructure failure. Cafes, libraries, and community hubs must be reimagined as late-opening social spaces. They should host open-mic nights, quiz evenings, film screenings, and music sessions that allow young people to connect without the expectation, or the expense, of drinking alcohol, even if coffee and food might be the alternatives.
Second, this requires more than goodwill. The government and local authorities must fund and incentivise these spaces. Tax breaks, grants, and planning support should make it easy for small venues to stay open late, host community events, and operate without alcohol at the core of their business model. This is social investment, not subsidy.
Third, we must shift culture as well as policy. Alcohol-free events must be mainstream and not for moralistic reasons. A young person should feel just as at home spending an evening at a late-opening café event as they would in a bar. To normalise sober socialising is to democratise social life.
Reclaiming the Night: A Call to Action
The current state of urban social life is not inevitable. It is a policy choice. Cities have chosen to outsource the community to the alcohol industry. They have decided that young people's desire for connection should be monetised, and not met.
This is both a market failure and a moral one.
Investing in late-opening, alcohol-free third spaces is not a luxury; it is a civic necessity. The price of neglect is already visible in the health of our young people, the loneliness of our communities, and the commercialisation of every aspect of social life.
If cities are to be worth living in, they must once again belong to their citizens, not to the market for their drinks.
Third spaces are not just rooms with coffee and chairs. They are the foundations of belonging and collective wellbeing. Without them, we don't just lose our evenings. We lose our society.
Taking further action
If you want to write a letter to your MP on the issues raised in this blog post, there is a ChatGPT prompt to assist you in doing so, with full instructions, here.
One word of warning, though: please ensure you have the correct MP. ChatGPT can get it wrong.
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Buy me a coffee!
I am 69 and have almost completely given up drinking in the last year for health reasons. I was quite a heavy drinker for many years.
This year I went to my first ever cricket match without drinking alcohol. I enjoyed it just as much, if not more, than I did with drink involved.
The same with my first alcohol free jazz gigs.
This week I went to my first alcohol free funeral. The wake was held in an Irish pub in South London, the deceased had been in the pub trade most of her life – I worked for her in the 1970s.
I drank Guinness Zero.
Many years ago I ‘had to have a drink to get on the dance floor’
Thanks.
I appreciate your comment
Fully agree with this. Alcohol is far too dominant wherever you go. In Stevenage, the cafes won’t stay open till late because of the alcohol-fuelled people making life difficult for the staff as they leave.
It doesn’t help when this normalisaton is promoted by politicians eager to be seen with a pint in their hand.
Agreed
Good post. KUTGW
Curious take on life. Soft drinks / low alcohol drinks are a rip off, but they are readily available in pubs. My offspring (early 20s) and their contemporaries drink them regularly, though are not averse to the alcoholic versions in moderation or on special occasions. And outside of London being “Des” for the evening (the designated driver) is hardly a new thing. If Murphy Junior is being pressured into excessive alcohol consumption by his “friends” then maybe they’re not really his friends.
Wow.
First, soft drinks are bad for you.
Second, in London and Ely night life can easily exist without a car.
Third, you entirely miss the point that being the non-drinker is hard.
Fourth, you again miss the point on exclusion – your answer appears to be ’embrace it’.
Why are you such a fan of alcohol as a social lubricant?
I note you have not posted before. I am on high troll alert. I suspect you are that.
Re soft drinks being unhealthy, even water is dangerous in excessive quantities. You can’t avoid all risk in life.
I’m not saying life is perfect socially for youngsters. Far from it. Youngsters are humans, with all the pros and cons that come with humans, and by dint of being young (great though it is to being young) have likely not yet learnt all the skills necessary to navigate typical social situations. But youngsters do have the choice to socialise with no or limited alcohol.
And I reiterate my point that a “friend” who pressurises a youngster to consume more alcohol than they want to (or indeed to do anything that they don’t want to do) is not a friend.
If all this makes me a troll then so be it!
I have discussed this issue with a lot of young people.
Most would entrely disagree with you, and agree with James.
What about going to the gym? or playing 5 a side or hockey or tennis under the floodlights.. non of this was around when i was growing up FFS. Dome people want to blame someone for everything, it’s nonsense. Why not just take control of your life and live it as you wish.
I was never a sportsperson.
Most people never will be.
But then, they go to the pub to talk. Exactly the same.
Your neoliberal belief that people are able to control their lives is also definition of the problem. Your patronising smugness just reveals your incomprehension of real lives.
Interesting to note as well that small business owners who open alcohol-free pubs but rely on the sale of NA drinks tend to go under as the clientele don’t drink huge volumes of NA drinks unlike beer drinkers who struggle with control with more of the drug imbibed.
Accepted
That is why other formats and incentives are required, as James notes.
Good article. Living in London in my twenties, I made sure I got home before the pubs kicked out at 11pm, imposing a curfew on myself for safety. Longer opening hours and a lack of alternative venues (and likely less night buses) probably mean it is a pretty grim prospect for those who want to socialise in the evening but not in a bar.
There are still many groups of volunteers focusing on music, drawing and painting, industrial archaeology, environment, more. Birdwatchers, model engines . . Most of the ones I know are currently mostly retired people, who are desperate for younger people to take over. In Sheffield, some of them depend on people having cars, so don’t have to be local. Just last Saturday, there was a performance of Tallis’ Spem in Alium locally, with more than 100 amateur singers spending the whole day learning and rehearsing. My local ancient woodland has a group of about 12 volunteers every week doing a couple of hours maintenance Tuesday mornings. I’d say define an interest, and you can probably find others who share the interest and will form a group to pursue it. And alcohol is seldom necessary, or wanted, in such groups. You do need time, but if this time is currently spent in pubs it can be swapped.
Linda
I wholly agree. Great for us older people.
But they really are not easy places for 24 year olds.
But James is looking how to set uo groups.
I’m sure James is familiar with Meetup.
He might be able to find a group there or even set one up himself
He has plans for the second.
This is not a wholly modern phenomenon; growing up in 90’s Scotland, alcohol was everywhere and fully integrated into life in general. Playing in a brass band from a young age was effectively a school for drinking. It was just normal. Campaigning against it did happen, but it was definitely a fringe pursuit.
What IS new, is that young people today are far better informed than they were 30 years ago. They know far more of the dangers, and they demand better. More power to them.
Thanks
You make the essential point – take part in any other activity and it ends in the pub
I would suggest reading Owen Jones book Chavs
He makes a lot of points about how Bars should be managed – but are not and how some in particular city centre ones are designed to maximise alcohol consumption.
May I suggest………
1. We need a ‘Alcohol – and other drugs’ control policy aimed at cutting problem consumption, and
2. Going back to a point I made in the discussion of ‘Arts Funding’ something that helps to maintain and set up ‘activities’ be it choirs, mens/womens sheds sports clubs, model railway societies etc
I had forgotten that (and I am quoted in Chavs). Thanks.
A very interesting post. It reminds of the very last time I played rugby at university. Reading vs Oxford. At the age of 20 I was fit, fast and furious and the last thing I wanted to do was hang out in a Hooray Henry pub in Oxford drinking beer (which I don’t like and can’t bare the smell of) talking bollocks, so I hitchhiked back to Reading and read some more Russell. I remember thinking at the time that my aversion to all evening/nighttime social interaction being based around drinking – the pub, the whatever club, the 19th hole etc – was going to cause me a problem for the rest of my life. The same expectation and social pressure is also embedded within our working lives – a drink after work, evening networking events, even a visit to the theatre demands a drink during the interval. Alcohol has been normalised within British culture and most unquestionably accept and expect that all social interactions will be accompanied by ‘a drink’ and to invite someone for, or suggesting ‘a drink’ is the standard way of extending the arm of friendship. I’ve found that “fancy a coffee and a slice of cake?” Or “yes, thanks, good idea, do they serve cake and coffee”? works wonders. Pre-cafe culture days I even drove a date to Toddington Services from Bedford, rather than go too a smelly pub!
Much to agree with.
My productivity and energy have risen considerably since I effectively stopped drinking, and I was a very moderate drinker at most. It was energy sapping. I still have an occasional drink but don’t miss it. Increasing numbers of young people do not drink at all.
interesting article in the Guardian today – https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/oct/08/one-in-three-uk-workers-have-called-in-sick-after-work-drinks-survey-finds?CMP=share_btn_url
I am sure that is right.
Excellent article, with which I fully agree.
Could I please put in a plea for covered outdoor space? And shop awnings? All with solar panels of course.
Multipurpose, perhaps even with some seating – we should welcome opportunities to spend more time in the open air. The weather may be wet but we would be dry!
I greatly enjoy Paris and Amsterdam, for example, where open-air (but covered) restaurants and bars are very popular (aided in the latter by marijuana, surely overdue for legalisation), especially with English visitors. This relaxed way of life has much to commend it, with positive impacts on attitudes and behaviour.
In my Aotearoan hometown, wide and largely covered pavements in the central area were highly sociable places on late-shopping nights. A small city, groups of shoppers and their families would meet friends as a matter of course. Respect for their residents was clearly shown by the local council and shop-owners, and all-weather window-shopping was a popular pastime even when the shops were closed.
Contrast Oxford Street, barely making it into the 20th century yet…
This would be easy where we live.
Very interesting article. How different from many European towns and cities, where the idea of the ‘promenade’ – walking up and down the main streets, or in squares is a popular eveinng pastime for young and old alike. here it would be viewed as a threat, or at least ‘antisocial’ behaviour.
But of course, the reason we have no ‘third spaces’ here is obvious. People might get together, talk to each other and think.
We can’t have that can we?
You may well be right.
I suspect that is what James want.
Two points:
(1) The last thing capitalism will favour is people socialising without spending much money in community venues – ‘making their own entertainment’ – better persuade them to either stay at home, buy subscriptions and watch adverts, or go out to expensive restaurants, multi-screen cinemas, trendy bars, etc…
(2) Brits that travel to France (beyond a very few cities and touristy areas) will know its very different alcohol culture – little ‘binge drinking’, families out together, children and older people present in nightlife areas that in the UK would be the sole preserve of youth, etc…
There is of course a complex cultural background to these differences – but a key factor is also the financial infrastrucure. In ‘la France profonde’ cafés and restaurants are still generally family-run, and the family still lives upstairs – and this in turn relates to the fact that the French economy is much less financialised than the British, with better employment protections. Fixed costs – especially premises, are relatively low, labour costs relatively high. This legal/financial difference works with the cultural factors to create in France both more resistance to extractive capitalism, and a more family and community focus to social life, rather than radically segmented, individualised markets.
Thanks
Round here the pubs all shut long ago. The walking distance bars are in social clubs or community centres.
Our library runs alcohol free open mic nights.
There’s lots of groups/activities during the day, but that doesn’t help the young working adult.
Small local youth clubs are mostly gone but we have a big “youth zone” opening which may help.
But again that doesn’t help young adults at work.
Zero alcohol drinks are NOT easy to find. Traditional soft drinks are overpriced and sickly sweet. My wife isn’t allowed alcohol (medication reasons) so I’m trying to find alternatives she will enjoy. So far zero Guinness goes down well but isnt easy to find locally or in bars so its zero lager/Pilsner.
Declaration of interest – our adult son died suddenly last year, alcohol abuse for 20 years, mostly living with us. I’m an expert. I am not teetotal, although I was teetotal when a student in Scotland, as a reaction against a hard-drinking “drunkard” culture in my college and city.
We managed to get a sea change with smoking. Can we do it with booze?
I’m with Tom on this one. It’s a problem for young adults – yet another way my generation have messed up the country for his gerneration. Sorry, Tom.
Back in the 1960’s (I was a young teenager locked up in school) weren’t there “coffee bars” (open in the evenings) and rock&roll music? Where did they disappear to?
Thanks
I do appreciate your comments.
And this one was James, not Tom.
Today was the first time ever when all four members of the family appeared on the blog in some way.
Neither son could write much more than their name when it began.
And so sorry about your son: I cannot imagine the pain.
I managed to give up alcohol entirely on my own and agree there is much more to life – excellent article!
I have done the same, almost entirely. It is by chance not planning in my case. James is not teetotal. He just wants choices.
Firstly, it would be so great if your son was a fan of the music of LCD soundsystem !
That aside, perhaps an unpopular opinion, but I sometimes feel the non-drinking establishment veers close to evangelism in its desire to point out that it is a true path to be chosen.
Alcohol, when over-consumed, is the direct cause of death, poverty and many other social sores. It can also be a welcome accompanyment to great food, a relaxer, a centrepoint of social togetherness and, let’s be honest, a big blooming earner.
Not to mention the link between alcohol and the arts.
As with many things in life, moderation is the key.
This coming from someone whose mother died far too early of alcohol-related illness.
Not a band I know
And thanks
Spoken in true Victor Meldrew style
I Dont Believe It!!
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/oct/08/pub-opening-hours-in-england-and-wales-could-be-extended
Given the price elasticity of alcohol it seems unlikely that it would encourage more sales, BUT it would increase costs.
Given the current state of consumer spending is there more money to be spent on drink?
Finally of course would it be a good thing to sell more alcohol anyway?
Its lunacy on so many counts
I agree with your conclusion.
Headline apparently in the Guardian tonight
“ Pubs to stay open until early hours in push for UK growth”
Lunatics in charge of… springs to mind.
Am I right in thinking that coffee bars used to be a social space in the evenings?
At one time they were.
And pub late opening is just utterly destructive.
Once upon a time, the main “third space” was Church, though I’m not sure Jesus of Nazareth would wish to see it described that way. It’s worth reflecting on the effects of faith, though you can’t just turn it on. A key underpinning of faith is care for others. Start with that, and fulfilment will follow.
Meanwhile, in other news:
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/oct/08/pub-opening-hours-in-england-and-wales-could-be-extended
Just listened to BBC File on 4 about youth justice service ‘Child centred approach’ to young offenders in Swindon. Very interesting and surely a cry out for the return of youth clubs and other non-alcohol/ drug venues to make our children feel valued and want to be part of a positive society.
In a nutshell, i agree with you Richard.
Yes this has been a point of contention for many years. In the past young people would use other substances to enjoy themselves which did not cause violence such as MDMA for dancing or Cannabis to chill out. The police heavily cracked down on such organic gatherings and neoliberalism embraced the dance scene commercialising clubs, this caused mayhem in town centres which the police had to deal with also cocaine became very popular with young people because alcohol is so short lived the Cocaine allows them to stay up longer and drink more, Cocaine is neoliberal to the core.
I think Alcohol is a major blot on western civilisation it is a tertiary alcohol that should not be consumed by humans. It causes major health and behavioural problems have you seen how drunk Brits behave abroad!, frankly there are many safer substances in modern pharmacopoeia which could replace it but big Ethanol like big Tobacco is huge and will die with its cold dead hands holding a beer.
I hope one day we can have a proper discussion about psychoactive substances without the red top papers ruining everything. Young people are already exposed to a variety of drugs including Alcohol and black-market drugs, dealers generally don’t care about anything except profit. We should change this situation as it hugely damaging for young peoples health. The time for drug reform is now, the Tories have been incredibly regressive on this ignoring reality as would reform just as they have been on prison/offender reform both have caused huge damage to society. It is human nature to expand/change ones consciousness.