‘After Last Orders?: A biographical exploration of the impact of UK pub closures’ is a two-year research project based at Loughborough University and funded by The Leverhulme Trust under its Research Grant Scheme.
Over a quarter of Britain’s pubs have closed since the year 2000. This represents an enormous shift in how and where people socialise and their opportunities for in-person social connection. It also entails a dramatic change to the physical landscapes of our towns, cities and countryside, and the landmarks through which people feel (dis)connected to place, community and nation. Through extensive field research at seven case studies of pub closure, alongside key stakeholder interviews and media analysis, this research project explores the social and cultural significance of this precipitous decline in pub numbers.
Here we present here a series of long-reads based on our seven pub closure case studies, each telling the story of a closure and the people and places affected.
- The White Horse
1872-2014: Kimpton, Hertfordshire - The Three Lions
1967-2021: Meden Vale, Nottinghamshire - McGlynn’s
Early 1800s-2023: Kings Cross, London - The Litten Tree
1999-2023: Coventry, West Midlands
Below is a map showing the locations of our case studies. Our selection attempted to capture some of the diversity of pubs and the communities that they serve, across rural-urban geographies and regions. Stay tuned for future long-reads regarding closed pubs in coastal South Wales, city center Manchester, and suburban Birmingham. The data from this project will eventually be published as a book, under contract with Bloomsbury Academic.
