Can 24-hour drinking zones transform a city?
Can 24-hour drinking zones transform a city?
Montreal is planning to allow bars and clubs to stay open all night, but opinions are mixed.
Most definitely! But maybe not in the way people would want.
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That's a very first shift centric mindset. I get off work at 1AM, if I want to grab a beer after work I should be able to. Bars having to close at certain times is just puritanical BS that also ignores anyone with a "non-standard" schedule.
The UK already has 24 hour drinks licensing in theory, and lots of bars have a late licence. But in practice, very few bars actually open through the night; it turns out that the economics of keeping a bar staffed and open when most of the customers are in bed just doesn't work out.
It's pretty much just nightclubs that make any use of it.
Is there such a thing as a 1am or 2am licence? I feel it would be better if pubs/bars could just choose whatever opening times they want, it would prevent this "chucking-out time" phenomenon where everyone spills onto the streets with nowhere to go.
Yes, "24 hour licensing" means that bars can apply for any licence they want, but they don't need to apply for a full 24 hours if they don't want to; they can apply for any licence terms they like.
They also don't need to open for the full terms of their licence. Just because they've been granted a 4am licence, it doesn't mean they can't still shut up shop at 10:30pm if they like. It's permission to open during those hours, not an obligation.
Right, for some reason I thought it was a binary choice: close at 12 or get the (probably expensive) 24-hour licence.
All licence applications cost the same in the UK, regardless of what you apply for (or to be more exact: the cost scales with the size of the venue according to fixed bands related to "business rates" valuations).
Licensing conditions are actually entirely fluid and negotiable between the applicant and the local council, who act as the licensing body. Not only with regards to opening hours, but also to all sorts of weird and wonderful additional terms. In practice when it comes to opening hours, a lot of pubs and bars apply for (and are granted) licenses quite a lot later than their actual intended closing time, as it gives them leeway to open late for special occasions without the need to apply for a temporary extension, and gives flexibility for "lock ins" (i.e. continuing to serve customers after they'd normally have shut up shop).
Interesting, thanks for explaining!
I believe Glasgow has or had a "postman's bar" that was open until the very early hours for those getting off the late shift sorting letters.
20+ years ago when I worked in a Cardiff nightclub, there was a place that was open until about 7am for its members. Naturally, lots of night shift workers signed up as members, and on a Saturday night it was full until close.
The landlady made it very clear to everyone, every time you went there, that causing trouble would be an instant ban.
As it was the only place open through the night, there was never a problem there. It was fantastic :)
I've been saying this about restaurants and stores for years. Unfortunately the majority of people don't work 3rd shift. TBH if we all worked on a rotating offset with starting times spaced 4 hours apart, we could reduce traffic massively. But noooo, people insist on sleeping at night. Fuck night owls I guess. Oh well. Nobody wants a 13 month calendar either.
Why is no one ever thinking about alcoholics?
Bars being forced to close at a certain time stops alcoholics?