Have we fallen out of love with booze culture?

After a record dry January and the closure of yet more bars and clubs, Robbie Griffiths on why London is going sober

LOTS of Londoners used to be mostly drunk by this point in February. But not so much in 2024, it seems. After a record Dry January — which an estimated 8.5 million people in the UK tried last month — many of us are trying something that’s historically not been very British: drinking in moderation.And it’s Gen Z who are leading the charge. While so many of us had misspent youths sneaking booze on park benches, Gen Z are far more sensible, avoiding drinking from the off. Last week, the chief executive of Rekom, the UK’s largest nightclub operator, blamed the drop in Gen Z’s alcohol consumption, and their unwillingness to go out during the week, for the closure of 17 of their venues. York University has a “sober society”, eschewing bar crawls for games nights and coffee shop crawls instead.

Laura Willoughby, who runs Club Soda, a non and low-alcohol bar in Covent Garden, says “more people are moderating” their drinking now. Willoughby thinks a big reason is the costof-living crisis: her own bar also saw lower footfall last month. She says young people have less money than other generations — but the shift is also cultural, as they are making the choice not to get wasted, with their role models leading the way.

While actors used to drink hard for years, and then sober up when their careers were going downhill, now they shape up in their prime. Spider-Man actor Tom Holland, 27, told Jay Shetty’s podcast last year that quitting booze is “the best thing I’ve ever done”.