The politics of drinking
             November 6, 2024

The joy of loitering

This article first appeared in the Propel Info newsletter on March 17, 2023

Celebrating the return to the local in my previous column left a big question, of course. What’s to become of town and city centres, potentially hollowed out by this centrifugal drift to neighbourhoods? While the pandemic has certainly deepened this trend and made it more visible, the truth is our urban centres have been a worry for at least 30 years, since big retailers started moving out to the ring roads.

As early as the 1990s, before the internet introduced another way of buying stuff, local authorities feared high streets and shopping centres would be abandoned and that crime and disorder would move in. Hospitality was seen as a solution and operators were actively encouraged to open bars, restaurants and clubs in derelict, post-industrial city quarters.

So many pubs opened in old banks it became a bit of a joke, and it’s ironic that by the end of the decade, the solution became perceived as the problem as thousands of young people flooded into the new drinking circuits and the media zoomed in on the resulting scenes of drunkenness and disorder.

It was exaggerated, of course, and I believe, not inevitable. With a bit of foresight and planning, these bars could have been less concentrated geographically and could have been better designed, better controlled and better managed, with the staff better trained.

As it is, we’re left with the legacy of “Binge Britain” and a public health lobby energised against the drinks trade. But now that hospitality is again being seen as the way to bring life to our city centres, that’s not the only argument for planning.

One thing the industry doesn’t seem to lack is ideas. Sarah Travell’s survey of the latest experiential concepts in last week’s Propel Friday Opinion was educational. I now know what “Nerf” means, and it seems the fashion for competitive socialising now also includes snakes and ladders, thanks to the excellently-named Chance & Counters cafes.

Games of one sort or another have been an important part of pubs for centuries. People need a reason to get together, something to hang the conversation around. An invite to a cribbage session is more tempting than the embarrassing offer of a long conversation. Human beings are funny like that.

So, we have the ideas, and hopefully the money. Competitive socialising can be expensive. Often, a site will have to be totally transformed, especially if you’re building in shuffleboards and crazy golf courses. They may turn out to be a fad too, although they said that about darts when it took off in pubs between the wars.

Do we have the customers? People will probably continue to go out less often, but when they do make the trip into town, they want it to be a special experience. Build that, and they will come. It’s remarkable that while disposable incomes are being squeezed hard, many still choose to spend some of it on social activity. It’s seen as more of a necessity than a luxury.

But how long will they stay? Will they discover the joy of loitering (to steal a notion from German philosopher Walter Benjamin, who wrote a vast, sprawling, unfinished book about the compelling attractions of 19th century Paris, The Arcades Project)?

To be truly valuable and memorable, and to make the whole thing commercially viable, a trip to the city centre has to take in more than a meal in a restaurant or a visit to the theatre. Everything has to work together to hold people there. 

It must appeal to everyone too, not just the 18 to 30-year-olds, with the right mix of things to do and see. It must be accessible and safe, easy to get around. Businesses must operate to mutual benefit and not see themselves simply in competition with each other for time and money. 

And to get the maximum out of this opportunity, we need good planning. Local authorities and other agencies, along with operators, have to get together and decide what works best, what infrastructure is needed and which combination of attractions will increase city centre dwell time, in consultation with the people who’ll be enjoying a trip into town.

That way, our urban heartlands can bloom into vibrant playgrounds rather than collapse into dangerous deserts. It’s easier said than done, of course. The political will has to be there, and the right people have to be doing the planning for the right reasons. It’s a vision that can seem a long way off, but everything starts with a dream

Phil Mellows, March 17, 2023

Previously:

The joy of loitering

The return to the local

Larry Nelson and the challenge of trade journalism

What we'll be losing if pubs disappear

A novel approach: writing the dilemmas of drink

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