‘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. The funding has allowed the research team to conduct extensive research exploring the causes and impacts of pub closure in the UK. The project is designed to offer a unique insight into pub closures by taking a social and cultural perspective and using biographical methods to literally ‘tell the story’ of pubs and the impacts and lasting legacies of their closure.
The project aims to gather detailed accounts of pub closures from a varied range of people and groups affected by them, then use these accounts to construct illustrative biographies of the people and places affected by pub closures.
Research Design
The research methods chosen needed to reflect the socially connected and culturally embedded character of pubs and provide more than just a snapshot of pubs at the point of closure. At the core of the project are seven case studies of specific pub closures. These have been carefully selected to represent varied contexts including rural, suburban and urban locations.
Across the seven case studies, we have conducted 69 interviewees and eight focus groups including 33 focus group participants. For each case study pub we have carried out multiple site visits involving photography, mapping and informal interviews and conversations with local residents. We have spoken to the owners, managers and staff of our case study pubs, and spent time talking to local residents.
Elsewhere, the project team has carried out a systematic review of media converge to identify and analyse news content relating to pub closures from 2000 onwards and conducted interviews with sector key stakeholders including representatives from pub and beer sector organisations, pub-related charities, pub companies and breweries, pub activists and campaigners, and beer journalist and writers.