It’s a shame that everything closes so early, but we should be more skeptical of the idea of being open 24 hours night time economy
8 years ago amy lame was appointed As London’s Emperor of the Night, he is a newly created role aimed at championing the capital’s nightlife and ensuring it is a “thriving 24-hour city”. But today, she appears to be playing a different role. She is a folk devil, a lightning rod that exists to absorb resentment at London’s cultural decline. It’s difficult to confront the seemingly unassailable power of the city’s real estate developers, but it’s much easier to place the blame on an American woman with cat-eye glasses and an unusual hairstyle. As her staunchest defenders are especially likely to protest, she doesn’t actually have any power.
pub And the club has been thinned out During Rame’s tenure, she continued to excel in the role of the sacrificial lamb. Last week, she sparked a new wave of ridicule when London’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, quoted her in a tweet. interview She claimed to the BBC: “London leads the world in 24-hour policies and other world cities are looking to us for inspiration.” Although Lamé herself didn’t say so, she took on most of the criticism – a tough job! This claim is patently false and has never happened. London is a city where I always sleep perfectly well, thank you. In the early 2000s, when Labor famously promised a “continental cafe-style drinking culture” by relaxing Britain’s alcohol licensing laws, standard pub closing times were at 11 p.m. It was faster than that. Although now in decline, London was never a particularly welcoming city for late-night revelers.
Following Lamme’s interview, people on Twitter began sharing harrowing stories of how they spent desperate hours wandering Holborn in search of selfish people, robbed of their nights by a lack of options. I was in such a position too. I know the frustration I felt when I heard the last order bell at 9pm. But if we’re going to argue that London is a better 24-hour city, we need to seriously ask who it’s better for.
The service industry, as well as the general nighttime economy, is overly reliant on low-wage immigrant workers, who often incur significant costs. “Night workers spend long hours commuting at night, experience a lack of safety due to darkness, endure sleepless days and nights, lack access to day services, and mainstream society functions during the day when night workers need to sleep. “They suffer from social isolation from,” wrote scholar Julius Caesar Macquarie in his book, ” Invisible migrant night workers in London 24/7. Working often at night not only makes life more lonely and unstable, but it also comes with serious physical health risks, from cardiovascular problems to digestive problems. If London truly became a 24/7 city, it would inevitably become even more exploitative than it is now. I’m not sure the right to enjoy a fifth pint or a sit-down meal at any time is a worthwhile trade-off.
Some may be even more skeptical about whether a 24-hour city is a worthwhile aspiration, no matter how late you like to stay out. In his book 24/7: Late capitalism and the end of sleep, Jonathan Crary argues that modern capitalism is characterized by an expansion of the amount of time we spend awake both working and consuming, collapsing the boundaries “between day and night, light and darkness, action and reaction.” I claim that there is. According to this view, promoting a 24/7 society is actually about squeezing as much profit as possible from us and depriving us of the respite necessary for economic growth.
“Night workers spend long hours commuting at night, experience a lack of safety due to darkness, endure sleepless days and nights, lack access to day care services, and suffer social isolation from mainstream society.” – julius caesar macquarie
Crary’s discussion is primarily about new digital technologies, not that capitalism “wants” anything, but that today it favors activities that can be carried out at home, such as streaming, scrolling, ordering takeout, and shopping online. It seems like it is. Similarly, the real estate market is a much more important driver of today’s urban economy than the leisure sector. Almost every building in London is more profitable as housing than as a bar or club, which explains a lot. For police and local governments, however, nightlife is too messy and destructive to be exploited. The proof is in the pudding. It is clearly true that modern capitalism has not been kind to London’s pubs, bars and clubs.
Still, I’m reluctant to demand a permanent presence of precarious, low-wage labor to provide snacks at all times, or to complain that free markets are being stifled by government regulations. –I understand what you mean, but these are right-wing libertarian arguments. If London’s cultural vitality is being diminished by capitalism, is more capitalism – freer, uninhibited capitalism – really the answer?
Part of the problem is that in London today, when there’s nothing to do, there’s really nothing to do. As a result of the housing crisis, young people have far fewer choices about where to live (they tend to take whatever they can get), and this means that congregating in the same area is now even more difficult than it was five years ago. It means there is. your friend. If you’re kicked out of a central London pub at 10pm and want to continue your night, all it takes is a few cans in someone’s living room and you might have to travel an hour in the wrong direction. (One can, but not all.) There have always been external constraints on how people enjoy themselves, but this kind of spontaneous workaround is now more inhibited than ever.
I think nightlife is important and its decline is a depressing problem that can and should be solved with political intervention. The current system is clearly not working. It is also worth noting that overly strict licensing laws can also have a negative impact on workers. It’s hard to get the hours you need if the venue you work for only allows six hours a night to open (a measure introduced by Hackney City Council in 2018) – all new venues must open on weeknights The mandate to close by 11 a.m. made this scenario especially likely. ) But we can advocate for better London nightlife without becoming spoiled consumer rights advocates and stamping our feet when our whims aren’t met. We don’t realize that a large part of our leisure time depends on exploitation.