When the awkward question arose of what exactly London’s 24-hour economy consisted of, Lamé’s first suggestion was people “working for the NHS”
Straight out of the UK bureaucrat’s playbook: when cornered like a rat in a trap, invoke the NHS.
NHS is like a ‘get out of jail free’ card.
I’m just gutted I can’t use it
J Bryant
1 month ago
Dear Mr (soon to be Dr.) Maier: this is what your generation voted for. No s*x, no babies, no carbon footprint, no fun. Crucify yourselves on the altar of Net Zero (but isn’t martyrdom so utterly thrilling?!).
Not to worry. Declare yourself anxious, or depressed, or traumatized and the NHS will happily prescribe a lifetime of valium. You can have a really good time at home with Babycham and Valium.
It easier to get your GP to prescribe hen’s teeth than it is to get them to prescribe diazepam. Why hand out anxiolytics that cost next to nothing when you can prescribe SSRis and Zs at 100x the cost with similar potential dependency problems?
Very good. It seems London is tired of drinking in taverns too.
‘There is nothing which has yet been contrived by man, by which so much happiness is produced as by a good tavern or inn.’ – Samuel Johnson.
Jonathon
1 month ago
London just isn’t a 24 hour city. I’m not entirely sure we even have a desire (really) for a 24 hour city.
This person’s role is completely unnecessary and should be scrapped ASAP.
On a side note, it’s really not possible to have a truly 24 hour tube service; those cities that do have several tracks going the same way, allowing engineering work to be done while the other tracks are open. London simply does not have that option.
How often does a track need to be repaired? Assuming we could convert the Tube to driverless trains that run 24/7, how often would maintenance shut a track down?
I believe it’s more maintenance than repairs but it’s quite a slow process (metres at best per evening) and is something all metros do but others have several tracks to allow this to happen. The actual time shut down per night is only around 4 hours and that doesn’t allow time for things to be fully wound down, power off, people and gear down there, and the reverse when the network opens again. All told the tube isn’t down for very long each day, I would doubt enough to say masses are being prevented from enjoying London 24/7.
It was a tangential question obviously: the only way to establish a 24/7 public transport network in London is to automate it, in my view. So I align with your view that even if we did it, it’d make little difference because London isn’t populated with millions of young outgoing people with enough money to stay out at night drinking anyway.
Apparently the London Overground Highbury to south London has to be repaired EVERY SINGLE WEEKEND SINCE IT OPENED IN 2009
God knows what.
Jeremy Bray
1 month ago
In Starmer’s Labour paradise we can expect to see many more Labour Party supporters earning £100,00 + for such non jobs. It is merely a return to the powerful being able to reward their friends and relatives with sinecures at the expense of the public.
It’s surprising how self declared socialists are able to tolerate disproportionate wealth, power and privilege. I guess they need it in order to perfect the world for the glorious revolution.
Milton Gibbon
1 month ago
The author hasn’t caught up with reality (despite flirting with it towards the end). Young people just don’t want to go out as much as they used to. Basically every poll shows this. Covid accelerated the trend but kids (and young people) today are just boring.
…and, perhaps more importantly, skint.
They earn less (adjusted for inflation) pay vastly more in rent, and have a shedload more debt.
Not that hard to understand why they don’t wish to drop a tonne of money on cocktails.
Cocktails!!? In my day we drank halves of swill on weekdays and cocktails once a decade; the pubs closed at 10:30 south of the river and 11:00 north of the river, and trauma surgeons all wanted to train at Charing X hospital given the resulting road mayhem on the bridges. We knew how to enjoy ourselves, but there’s work in the morning….
There’s probably less of them that drink but a majority still go out and misbehave the same as we used to. The problem is sky high rents and stagnant wages have pushed many of them towards the outskirts of the city and also left them with less disposable income. Chuck in the insane prices for a pint in London and you’ve got a perfect storm of lack of youngsters in the area, with a lack of cash and an expensive product
American here. I enjoy visiting London and have done so numerous times. One of the things that always impresses me is just how good people there are at gathering outside: picnics, having a few drinks with friends after work, whatever it may be. Americans can learn a thing or two about outdoor fun from Londoners!
American here, as well, and I have no idea what you’re talking about. Backyard barbecues, driveway gatherings, drinks by the pool, tailgate parties, post-hike picnics, restaurants and bars packed with people, beaches and lakes filled with happy crowds . . . That’s daily life here. We’re very much outdoors in our huge nation. Not all of us are sitting inside on our computers.
John Riordan
1 month ago
It’s pretty simple: central London started becoming unaffordable in the early 2000’s as a place to live for younger people on typical incomes, and this antigravitational effect was turbocharged by the interest rate response to the banking crisis, which moved home-ownership in both central and suburban London from being a big ask, to might-as-well-be-on-the-Moon as far as most people are concerned.
You cannot chase millions of younger people out of the city and then be surprised twenty years later that there’s no demand for late night socialising.
The situation was the same in London 30 years ago. Pubs shut at 11pm and you either needed to find a dive with a late licence or go to a club. And then a nightbus home. On weeknights, there was usually no option after 11pm. I too did my share of gate-crashing strangers house parties or getting taxis to pubs where someone once had a lock-in in the hope that it would happen again.
Funny thing is, this never struck me as a bad thing. Isn’t it all part of the fun when you are in your 20s?
Allison Barrows
1 month ago
I often wonder why Sadiq Khan isn’t chucked out of office on his *ss. But, then again, how did that creepy weirdo attain his position in the first place?
Still, pub life is strange in London: the only place my husband and I could get a drink at three in the afternoon was at a bar run and owned by an Australian. Except for us and the bartender, there was only one other patron – another American. Turns out he was playing Jean Valjean in “Les Miz” and got us free center loge tickets for the show.
R.I. Loquitur
1 month ago
Could it be because 15% (and growing) of London’s population is now Muslim and doesnt drink? I hear Tehran’s nightlife isnt that exciting either.
None of that either. Late night coffe and dessert? Forget ur. There’s precisely one one place in all of London that offers it which is the indispensable bar Italia
Stuart Bennett
1 month ago
You only need look at what the council did to Fabric a few years back. Easily one of the most important nightlife institutions in the world for nearly 20 years and they did everything they could to eviscerate them, bankrupt them and put them out of business.
Sophy T
1 month ago
When the awkward question arose of what exactly London’s 24-hour economy consisted of, Lamé’s puzzling first suggestion was people “working for the NHS” — the implication being that, because it is still possible late at night to travel across the capital by ambulance.
That’s brilliant.
William Cameron
1 month ago
The usual reason some lady is in a well paid position doing nothing is usually …. .
William Cameron
1 month ago
Here in the Country the Boozers are open till midnight at weekends- 11 during the week.
laurence scaduto
1 month ago
Very much my experience when I lived there. In 1979!
I couldn’t help but notice, though, that my gay friends seemed to be doing just fine when it came to partying/drinking.
Martin Smith
1 month ago
Don’t worry assisted suicide is on the way…
John Galt Was Correct
1 month ago
I lived in London for 10 years, from the beginning to the end of the 1990’s when it was a vastly more energetic and fun place than it is now. But even then it had a certain sense of being all mouth and no trousers. All lights and no action. Maybe it’s too spread out, it’s not dense by large city rankings. Soho now is bland. It’s just shops. Most of the city seems to be bland. The West End is Blackpool on Thames and the rest of the centre is dead. Maybe it got too middle class and expensive and the interesting young things moved away. There used to be a sense of greatness, a true world city that no longer exists. Sure, it still has a very metropolitan population but it’s very ‘meh’ compared to what it was. It is no New York. Not sure it is even an Istanbul. It’s lost its sense of self.
Possibly connected to the fact that its demographics have changed dramatically in that time?
James Kirk
1 month ago
Must be an age thing. London’s shut down began with the millennium. Khan finished it off. People overseas often asked me if I lived in London. Good God no, I’d say. London’s not England. Only visit by helicopter and land on a decent hotel helipad. Exit in reverse. Ugh!
Andrew Boughton
1 month ago
Hugely entertaining.
UnHerd Reader
1 month ago
Alcohol is going out of fashion fast. Instagram is all about health and beauty, and they require toxin-free sleep. Even oldies now know booze will kill them.
Dark Horse
1 month ago
Leave London.
It’s ugly, expensive, mismanaged, dirty, depressing, crime ridden.
As a writer you can work from anywhere.
Or give up drinking.
Why do you need to be paralytic every night until dawn?
Are you an alcoholic?
As difficult as it is to get a drink in London past 10:30 pm. It is even more difficult to get anything to eat. I can’t think of a single restaurant that stays open and serves people after 9 pm. It’s incredible virtually anywhere in North America and on the continent you can find somebody serving food (decent food I mean not kebabs) until at least midnight. The idea that the kitchen closes at nine or sometimes even earlier is mine blowing. It’s a bit depressing to Make sure that you’re at home by 8:30 pm in order to have a bite to eat
I’m not really sure why London has such a hard time with nights time culture I would be very interested to find out
I’ve noticed this – while looking for cafes that stayed open late, as it happens. Restaurants that shut at 8.30 pm? Is that even a restaurant? In France they don’t open till 7pm (at least where I went). I was indeed astonished that they don’t stay open till at least 10.
jane baker
1 month ago
I understand what this man is saying. It’s dark and cold and the streets are empty and this is supposed to be a fun party city,so where’s the party? But is going out drinking really that much fun. In my 1960s childhood the image of adultness,the hip fun snazzy image of “being an adult” almost all focused on drinking. Pubs were mysterious places where you made magical connections with fabulous people.Well,there have been a lot of decades since then,changes in pub hours,changes in the whole drinks economy. It’s not Ena Sharpies and her two friends sipping a glass of stout all evening.
Even those local pubs that survive have to be Bars catering for a standing up crowd (pack more in) of free spending young uns.
I find it a bit sad that my generation go on about – the young ones now don’t know how to have fun,we were out there tanking it,dropping acid,shagging around,going into rehab,we really lived! I “grew up” or die I just grow old and I found out that pubs are just boring places full of boring people,-like myself,and that all the Adult Stuff is smoke and mirrors. If todays kids are wise enough to know that,good for them. I expect their Grannies told them. This guy is obviously a sad no mates who nobody is telling where the party is? Better go live in Paris,mate.
Dr E C
1 month ago
the idea that we’re all here paying extortionate rents & wallowing in filth because we want to be able to party 24/7 is hilarious.
Most of us are trapped here for work & desperately relieved that the noise, traffic & mess ends at some point each night so we can get some effing sleep.
Darryl Clark
1 month ago
I’m 64 now, and when pressed to travel back into the City for an evening, I try and educate them on either the torture, or impossibility of getting home again. Whilst enormously enthusiastic to criticise anything Khan initiates, the tube problem goes back to when I was 18. Tubes shut down about 11pm (hopeless) and Black Taxis refuse to go “sarf of the river” (living as I do in Wimbledon). You then have no choice but to agree a price with a foreign driver that sneaks up on you like an under cover Russian agent, offering you a ride – with no hire-and-reward insurance.
Rob Parker
1 month ago
With the possible exception of the 90s and early noughties, London has never been a city like Berlin, Madrid, or New York where you can just waltz in and party party.
It is a cliquey place, and much of it operates behind closed doors. It is a case of working your way in, having a face that fits, knowing where your place sits within the British class system, having the right contacts, knowing the social codes, and finding your tribe.
understandably many people never quite learn to play that game very well, and for the most part they are left to make do with mediocre, and over priced venues like Tiger Tiger……if they are lucky they may still meet a partner, and escape the city before middle age seriously kicks in, and they spin off into orbit to merge into the bland grey backdrop that is the streets of London……..
When the awkward question arose of what exactly London’s 24-hour economy consisted of, Lamé’s first suggestion was people “working for the NHS”
Straight out of the UK bureaucrat’s playbook: when cornered like a rat in a trap, invoke the NHS.
NHS is like a ‘get out of jail free’ card.
I’m just gutted I can’t use it
Dear Mr (soon to be Dr.) Maier: this is what your generation voted for. No s*x, no babies, no carbon footprint, no fun. Crucify yourselves on the altar of Net Zero (but isn’t martyrdom so utterly thrilling?!).
Not to worry. Declare yourself anxious, or depressed, or traumatized and the NHS will happily prescribe a lifetime of valium. You can have a really good time at home with Babycham and Valium.
It easier to get your GP to prescribe hen’s teeth than it is to get them to prescribe diazepam. Why hand out anxiolytics that cost next to nothing when you can prescribe SSRis and Zs at 100x the cost with similar potential dependency problems?
It seems that London is tired of life.
Very good. It seems London is tired of drinking in taverns too.
‘There is nothing which has yet been contrived by man, by which so much happiness is produced as by a good tavern or inn.’ – Samuel Johnson.
London just isn’t a 24 hour city. I’m not entirely sure we even have a desire (really) for a 24 hour city.
This person’s role is completely unnecessary and should be scrapped ASAP.
On a side note, it’s really not possible to have a truly 24 hour tube service; those cities that do have several tracks going the same way, allowing engineering work to be done while the other tracks are open. London simply does not have that option.
How often does a track need to be repaired? Assuming we could convert the Tube to driverless trains that run 24/7, how often would maintenance shut a track down?
I believe it’s more maintenance than repairs but it’s quite a slow process (metres at best per evening) and is something all metros do but others have several tracks to allow this to happen. The actual time shut down per night is only around 4 hours and that doesn’t allow time for things to be fully wound down, power off, people and gear down there, and the reverse when the network opens again. All told the tube isn’t down for very long each day, I would doubt enough to say masses are being prevented from enjoying London 24/7.
It was a tangential question obviously: the only way to establish a 24/7 public transport network in London is to automate it, in my view. So I align with your view that even if we did it, it’d make little difference because London isn’t populated with millions of young outgoing people with enough money to stay out at night drinking anyway.
Apparently the London Overground Highbury to south London has to be repaired EVERY SINGLE WEEKEND SINCE IT OPENED IN 2009
God knows what.
In Starmer’s Labour paradise we can expect to see many more Labour Party supporters earning £100,00 + for such non jobs. It is merely a return to the powerful being able to reward their friends and relatives with sinecures at the expense of the public.
It’s surprising how self declared socialists are able to tolerate disproportionate wealth, power and privilege. I guess they need it in order to perfect the world for the glorious revolution.
The author hasn’t caught up with reality (despite flirting with it towards the end). Young people just don’t want to go out as much as they used to. Basically every poll shows this. Covid accelerated the trend but kids (and young people) today are just boring.
…and, perhaps more importantly, skint.
They earn less (adjusted for inflation) pay vastly more in rent, and have a shedload more debt.
Not that hard to understand why they don’t wish to drop a tonne of money on cocktails.
Cocktails!!? In my day we drank halves of swill on weekdays and cocktails once a decade; the pubs closed at 10:30 south of the river and 11:00 north of the river, and trauma surgeons all wanted to train at Charing X hospital given the resulting road mayhem on the bridges. We knew how to enjoy ourselves, but there’s work in the morning….
There’s probably less of them that drink but a majority still go out and misbehave the same as we used to. The problem is sky high rents and stagnant wages have pushed many of them towards the outskirts of the city and also left them with less disposable income. Chuck in the insane prices for a pint in London and you’ve got a perfect storm of lack of youngsters in the area, with a lack of cash and an expensive product
Do too many of them have chronic marijuana and/or “downer” habits? They do make people awfully passive and hence boring.
have you seen the price of three pints of lager and a packet of crisps?
True weed is cheaper
When Ghetto closed, and the alternative-conformism of RVT took over, London’s nightlife was doomed.
I really enjoyed this article…. The author writes well and is funny. What a welcome change that makes.
Couldn’t agree more. Bravo!
Second that
Positively Wodehousian
Spring is here – cider in the park.
American here. I enjoy visiting London and have done so numerous times. One of the things that always impresses me is just how good people there are at gathering outside: picnics, having a few drinks with friends after work, whatever it may be. Americans can learn a thing or two about outdoor fun from Londoners!
American here, as well, and I have no idea what you’re talking about. Backyard barbecues, driveway gatherings, drinks by the pool, tailgate parties, post-hike picnics, restaurants and bars packed with people, beaches and lakes filled with happy crowds . . . That’s daily life here. We’re very much outdoors in our huge nation. Not all of us are sitting inside on our computers.
It’s pretty simple: central London started becoming unaffordable in the early 2000’s as a place to live for younger people on typical incomes, and this antigravitational effect was turbocharged by the interest rate response to the banking crisis, which moved home-ownership in both central and suburban London from being a big ask, to might-as-well-be-on-the-Moon as far as most people are concerned.
You cannot chase millions of younger people out of the city and then be surprised twenty years later that there’s no demand for late night socialising.
Nailed it.
The situation was the same in London 30 years ago. Pubs shut at 11pm and you either needed to find a dive with a late licence or go to a club. And then a nightbus home. On weeknights, there was usually no option after 11pm. I too did my share of gate-crashing strangers house parties or getting taxis to pubs where someone once had a lock-in in the hope that it would happen again.
Funny thing is, this never struck me as a bad thing. Isn’t it all part of the fun when you are in your 20s?
I often wonder why Sadiq Khan isn’t chucked out of office on his *ss. But, then again, how did that creepy weirdo attain his position in the first place?
Still, pub life is strange in London: the only place my husband and I could get a drink at three in the afternoon was at a bar run and owned by an Australian. Except for us and the bartender, there was only one other patron – another American. Turns out he was playing Jean Valjean in “Les Miz” and got us free center loge tickets for the show.
Could it be because 15% (and growing) of London’s population is now Muslim and doesnt drink? I hear Tehran’s nightlife isnt that exciting either.
Then one would expect to see an increase in late night dessert parlours. This is what young people of that faith prefer to pubs, I’m told.
None of that either. Late night coffe and dessert? Forget ur. There’s precisely one one place in all of London that offers it which is the indispensable bar Italia
You only need look at what the council did to Fabric a few years back. Easily one of the most important nightlife institutions in the world for nearly 20 years and they did everything they could to eviscerate them, bankrupt them and put them out of business.
When the awkward question arose of what exactly London’s 24-hour economy consisted of, Lamé’s puzzling first suggestion was people “working for the NHS” — the implication being that, because it is still possible late at night to travel across the capital by ambulance.
That’s brilliant.
The usual reason some lady is in a well paid position doing nothing is usually …. .
Here in the Country the Boozers are open till midnight at weekends- 11 during the week.
Very much my experience when I lived there. In 1979!
I couldn’t help but notice, though, that my gay friends seemed to be doing just fine when it came to partying/drinking.
Don’t worry assisted suicide is on the way…
I lived in London for 10 years, from the beginning to the end of the 1990’s when it was a vastly more energetic and fun place than it is now. But even then it had a certain sense of being all mouth and no trousers. All lights and no action. Maybe it’s too spread out, it’s not dense by large city rankings. Soho now is bland. It’s just shops. Most of the city seems to be bland. The West End is Blackpool on Thames and the rest of the centre is dead. Maybe it got too middle class and expensive and the interesting young things moved away. There used to be a sense of greatness, a true world city that no longer exists. Sure, it still has a very metropolitan population but it’s very ‘meh’ compared to what it was. It is no New York. Not sure it is even an Istanbul. It’s lost its sense of self.
Excellent post…however the correct phrase is “all mouth and trousers”, the point being there’s not much inside the large trousers…
Or you could say, “all hat and no cattle,” if you were in Dallas.
All fur coat and no knickers.
Possibly connected to the fact that its demographics have changed dramatically in that time?
Must be an age thing. London’s shut down began with the millennium. Khan finished it off. People overseas often asked me if I lived in London. Good God no, I’d say. London’s not England. Only visit by helicopter and land on a decent hotel helipad. Exit in reverse. Ugh!
Hugely entertaining.
Alcohol is going out of fashion fast. Instagram is all about health and beauty, and they require toxin-free sleep. Even oldies now know booze will kill them.
Leave London.
It’s ugly, expensive, mismanaged, dirty, depressing, crime ridden.
As a writer you can work from anywhere.
Or give up drinking.
Why do you need to be paralytic every night until dawn?
Are you an alcoholic?
Quite
As difficult as it is to get a drink in London past 10:30 pm. It is even more difficult to get anything to eat. I can’t think of a single restaurant that stays open and serves people after 9 pm. It’s incredible virtually anywhere in North America and on the continent you can find somebody serving food (decent food I mean not kebabs) until at least midnight. The idea that the kitchen closes at nine or sometimes even earlier is mine blowing. It’s a bit depressing to Make sure that you’re at home by 8:30 pm in order to have a bite to eat
I’m not really sure why London has such a hard time with nights time culture I would be very interested to find out
I’ve noticed this – while looking for cafes that stayed open late, as it happens. Restaurants that shut at 8.30 pm? Is that even a restaurant? In France they don’t open till 7pm (at least where I went). I was indeed astonished that they don’t stay open till at least 10.
I understand what this man is saying. It’s dark and cold and the streets are empty and this is supposed to be a fun party city,so where’s the party? But is going out drinking really that much fun. In my 1960s childhood the image of adultness,the hip fun snazzy image of “being an adult” almost all focused on drinking. Pubs were mysterious places where you made magical connections with fabulous people.Well,there have been a lot of decades since then,changes in pub hours,changes in the whole drinks economy. It’s not Ena Sharpies and her two friends sipping a glass of stout all evening.
Even those local pubs that survive have to be Bars catering for a standing up crowd (pack more in) of free spending young uns.
I find it a bit sad that my generation go on about – the young ones now don’t know how to have fun,we were out there tanking it,dropping acid,shagging around,going into rehab,we really lived! I “grew up” or die I just grow old and I found out that pubs are just boring places full of boring people,-like myself,and that all the Adult Stuff is smoke and mirrors. If todays kids are wise enough to know that,good for them. I expect their Grannies told them. This guy is obviously a sad no mates who nobody is telling where the party is? Better go live in Paris,mate.
the idea that we’re all here paying extortionate rents & wallowing in filth because we want to be able to party 24/7 is hilarious.
Most of us are trapped here for work & desperately relieved that the noise, traffic & mess ends at some point each night so we can get some effing sleep.
I’m 64 now, and when pressed to travel back into the City for an evening, I try and educate them on either the torture, or impossibility of getting home again. Whilst enormously enthusiastic to criticise anything Khan initiates, the tube problem goes back to when I was 18. Tubes shut down about 11pm (hopeless) and Black Taxis refuse to go “sarf of the river” (living as I do in Wimbledon). You then have no choice but to agree a price with a foreign driver that sneaks up on you like an under cover Russian agent, offering you a ride – with no hire-and-reward insurance.
With the possible exception of the 90s and early noughties, London has never been a city like Berlin, Madrid, or New York where you can just waltz in and party party.
It is a cliquey place, and much of it operates behind closed doors. It is a case of working your way in, having a face that fits, knowing where your place sits within the British class system, having the right contacts, knowing the social codes, and finding your tribe.
understandably many people never quite learn to play that game very well, and for the most part they are left to make do with mediocre, and over priced venues like Tiger Tiger……if they are lucky they may still meet a partner, and escape the city before middle age seriously kicks in, and they spin off into orbit to merge into the bland grey backdrop that is the streets of London……..