Good morning. It is New Year’s Eve, a time when thoughts turn to the future and what 2026 might have in store for us. Also, the question looms: what the hell are we going to do tonight that doesn’t give us FOMO, thinking that we could be doing something better?
Going to the pub on NYE used to be a staple, but in the UK the hospitality industry is being battered by cost-of-living rises, younger people drinking less alcohol, and – on this particular evening – the tyranny of Jools’ Annual Hootenanny.
For today’s newsletter I travelled to St Albans with my Guardian colleague Sammy Gecsoyler. We met curator David Thorold from St Albans Museum, who is behind a new exhibition on the city’s pubs and inns, and we visited local landlords Sean Hughes and David Worcester to talk about the state of the industry. Naturally, as an old-fashioned hack visiting some pubs, I had a few drinks along the way. Before you find out about all that, here are the headlines.
In depth: The city where pubs refuse to die
More than 400 pubs closed in England and Wales in 2024, and back in October Sammy interviewed two landlords about the current landscape. They told him the industry has shifted from all-week reliable trade to fragile, unpredictable nights, squeezed by soaring costs and a generation that still goes to pubs but drinks far less alcohol – leaving landlords fighting to stay afloat even as they reinvent what a pub is for.
We chose St Albans because the local museum there has a new exhibition covering the history of the pubs and inns in the city. In 1884, an incredible 92 pubs were packed into a one-kilometre radius – a density more like a festival map than a city centre. Thorold joked that any old building in St Albans most likely is, was, or will be a pub at some point.
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Why did St Albans specifically develop so many drinking establishments?
Thorold explained that St Albans has always been defined in part by its proximity to London. Being one day’s ride from the capital meant huge demand for inns and stabling for the coaching industry.
A political will to encourage people to drink beer rather than gin shaped the early 19th century. The Beerhouse Act 1830, he said, led to an explosion in the number of pubs. “It allowed anybody, for a fee of about two guineas, to set up an establishment that sells beer. But you could only sell beer, not spirits or wine. St Albans went from about 40 pubs in 1840 to about 90 in 1880. That was the impact.”
The exhibition was originally planned to run until March but is already being extended so it will be open when the Campaign for Real Ale (Camra) hold a gathering there in April. One inspired highlight is a set of beer pumps which, when pulled, play audio stories.
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How is St Albans bucking the national trend?
One of the reasons so much is known about the city’s pubs is because of an 1880’s song listing all 92 of them. About a third are still going concerns, including The Boot, opposite the city’s famous Clock Tower – the only surviving medieval town belfry in England. It’s where we met landlord Sean Hughes.
“This place is quite unique,” he told us, “because we get local residents and we get tourists and visitors – it’s a bit of a meet-in-the-middle for everything.”
He said the city’s pubs survive partly because people “are very, very protective of their pubs. They want to be proud of their local places.”
There is also an active Save St Albans pubs campaign, stressing their slogan “a pub is for life, not just for Christmas”, and a strong mutual support network among the publicans.
“We really work hard together to make St Albans special,” Hughes said. “When you see the WhatsApp chats, it’s unbelievable – any issue, everyone knows, and if someone needs a keg or whatever, we’ll drop it round. It became a real support group during Covid – a really bleak time to be living above an empty, shuttered pub – and it makes for a better experience for everyone now.”
In The Boot we also met Ralph, a dog of significant charisma, who will absolutely be making an appearance as a future guest dog in the Thursday news quiz. Willow has been warned.
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Younger people are said to be drinking less – what impact is that having?
Sean suggested that St Albans is bucking another perceived national trend: the idea that young people aren’t going out as much.
“Weekends are getting younger here. You look around St Albans on a Friday or Saturday night and it’s a young crowd.” I thought it would be best to hear from Sammy, a real life young person.
SG:As someone in the final years of their 20s, I have seen the boom and bust of Gen Z drinking first-hand, as well as the recent signs of an alcoholic resurgence among the young and young(ish). For me, and I know we’re sick of talking about it, but the impact of Covid really cannot be overstated. I had a good few years of hitting the town before the pandemic hit and most of us just wanted to get wasted and we fit that noble aim around everything else. Early shift the next day? Solider through it. Want to get hench at the gym? A regular, alcohol-fuelled cheat day won’t hurt.
But when the world locked down, and we were stuck indoors stone-cold sober, something shifted. Other hobbies like gaming and fitness became (arguably unhealthy) obsessions and the appeal of stumbling around town waned. Mental health plummeted (one study found that cases of depression increased 8.5% for those who attended secondary school during the pandemic v 0.3% who were students pre-pandemic) and the idea of getting drunk in a public space lost its shine. And for me, well, being stuck indoors made me a bit tired.
With the pandemic behind us by a few years, we’re seeing young people entering adulthood whose lives were less marked by Covid, and some of the older Gen-Zs who are finally finding their financial footing, which is leading to an alcoholic renaissance among the young. This can be seen in other places too. Fun and hedonism is making a comeback (‘brat’ summer is in, clean girl aesthetic is seemingly out) and BuzzBallzs (the premixed cocktail that comes in a ball-shaped can) have seen booming business. Young drinkers are coming back.
MB: Thorold says that pubs have adapted to the change in drinking culture among younger patrons – it’s now totally commonplace to see people ordering non-alcoholic beers, at the pub, and not just for dry January.
But for this middle-aged First Edition writer, it’s the full fat version, thanks. Over my career I have published a lot of pictures of politicians posing behind bars with a pint in their hands, looking as if they’ve never seen beer before – and my own gormless pint picture is joyfully dedicated to you (with Thorold on the left and Hughes on the right).
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What are the pressures on the hospitality business in 2025?
Hughes said the biggest issue for the industry is taxation. “We’re one of the most heavily taxed industries in Europe,” he said. “The duty on beer and wine here is miles above what our neighbours pay. And when a pub closes, the Treasury loses out too. A typical pub is paying about £200,000 a year in tax; when it shuts, that disappears overnight. It’s a huge loss for the community and for the government.” When it comes to the bottom line, Sammy says it puts young punters off.
SG: To be honest, pubs have just become too expensive. I never really was a pub-dweller, but they were a good place to have a few, cheap drinks before a night out. Now, you spend nearly as much for a drink in a pub as you would in a club. I think this has changed how they’re used by young people. Instead of being a pre-drinking hub where pints and cocktails are flowing, they’ve become a place to catch up with a friend over a drink or two, maybe a meal, and then call it a night.
MB: But there are still lots of people that feel that the loss of a pub and pub culture is a thing to be mourned.
At the Lower Red Lion (which is the next stop on our pub tour) owner David Worcester says that what comes up again and again in conversation is how much pubs matter socially in a place like St Albans. “It’s a community,” Worcester says. “People talk to each other here who wouldn’t meet anywhere else.”
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Last orders for 2025
By the time we got to our third stop, The Peahen, our little party was very much proving a point Hughes had made earlier, that the era of heavy lunchtime boozing has disappeared. It was only me on the hard stuff. Everybody else had switched to soft drinks, non-alcoholic options, or water. They all had to go back to work, of course, whereas I was just heading for a train back to London. For what it’s worth, Sammy commented that I only had a slight sway in my walk as I departed towards the station at the end of our pub crawl.
I am down on the rota to be live blogging New Year’s Eve tonight, but even at this late stage, I am still somewhat tempted to see if I could get away with doing it on my laptop in a cosy corner of a lively pub up in St Albans. Whatever you end up doing, do have a happy New Year’s Eve, and remember, please drink responsibly. See you in 2026.
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