Number of pubs in England and Wales falls to record low
People who've never spent significant time in the UK may not appreciate the significance that pbus have played in the UK culture and social structure. Pubs have for many eyars been a social nexus. You wouldn't even go to drink necessarily but just go by default because that's what everyone else was doing.<p>These are quite typically "locals" rather than going somewhere to go to a pub in particular.<p>So this is really a long term trend in the changing social structure of the UK. Pubs are becoming less important socially, probably conciding with the rise of Internet culture and online connectedness. But also real estate prices come into play. Pubs sit on some valuable land, particularly in London. Costs go up to the point where you might be paying 8 pounds for a pint.  That gets really expensive.<p>I haven't seen anything close to this in the US. Take something like the bar in How I Met Your Mother. Obviously this is all fictional and these characters spen da lot of time there but it's still portrayed as extremely intentional, meaning plans are made to meet there. UK pub culture doesn't tend to be that intentional about meeting particular people but rather hanging out where others may or may not show up.