Go to Arab or Asian countries and there's good food and coffee available throughout the night, they're not there in most instances for tourists but locals – I feel like London severely lacks this
Beyond a random Nisa local selling out of date biryani, there's fuck all at night
by sabdotzed
23 comments
Most European countries have this, it’s a surprise it’s taken this long for the UK to catch up
Late opening South Asian cafes and cake shops are a real bonus for people, like me, who don’t drink alcohol.
A lot of people need to accept that the city, and culture has changed.
London is near dead at night due to rich people in the city centre. They’re shutting-down night-life and demanding early closing times. They want a village-atmosphere in the centre of a city of 9 million people.
This is what we grew up doing in the UAE, grab some chai, snacks and chill by the beach
All cities in the UK need late night coffee shops. I’m a drinker but don’t always want a pub atmosphere on an evening.
The Lounges are good for this too. Shame there aren’t many around London compared to the rest of the country.
I was in a had coffee and cake in a cafe (Soho) on Saturday night which closed at 11pm.
Grateful to be able to do that in London as I don’t like the pub.
Many just view central London as a place where they work and afterwards go home, it was very different from years ago when many stayed on and meet up with friends for the night life and now many can’t afford living in zone 1 and 2 and live on the outskirts. I just don’t see it coming back soon especially with the cost of living many are going through
South Korea has a big coffee culture and most coffee chains are open until 10pm. Albeit they do open after the morning rush (around 9pm). But they are great for evening catch ups.
When I lived in Sacramento there was a great spot called Dessert Diner where you could go till late at night and get amazing cakes, pies, sundaes and coffee etc. Same kind of deal with the likes of 24 hour Denny’s and other breakfast places. Something cool about eggs and pancakes with great coffee at 2am and seeing all the creatures of the night that come and go.
What happened to Platform, they opened late.
Too pricey?
London shuts down early 😅, I wish it was a proper 24hr city
Also despite supposedly being a city which ‘never sleeps’, it’s surprisingly hard to find anything within London which is truly 24 hours.
Best bet are some horrible casinos, Heathrow, or Heston Services on the M4…
London is so lame at night
The problem with London is that barely anyone lives in the centre, preventing an organic culture of just *hanging out*, whilst at the same time it draws life away from the towns in the outer zones where people actually live.
In some ways, some of the UK’s medium size towns are actually better at night, for regular, ordinary use, than London because of this.
Don’t get me wrong, the pure scale and beauty of London at night (the buildings lit up, the Thames etc) make it incomparable, but if you want to just hang out, or maybe even go for a casual dance, London is quite frustrating.
I’ve been to NYC a few times and it’s quite striking how *alive* Manhattan feels at night compared to London. But that’s at least partly because people live a lot more centrally in NYC.
Asian dessert places, middle east cafes, night marketa are the best
Shishawi for this exact reason. Mint tea and chess.
This. Working in the Square Mile, Polo Bar (which is more of a cafe/less greasy spoon) has been so useful when you wanted to catch up with a colleague after work in a non-pub setting and you didn’t want to grab a full meal. There clearly is a demand as that place is always rammed (does help its right on Bishopsgate opposite Liverpool St so it has the footfall).
Having coffee late at night is underrated, there’s a Cafe Nero in Soho that closes at 2 and we need more of this kind of thing
Bar Italia in Soho used to be great for 24hr caffeination.
It’ll come as more and more people drink less or stop and the pubs slowly die out. It’s on a downward trend since Covid anyway. Places will need to adapt to survive.
When I first started drinking it was positively abnormal to not drink. I didn’t know anyone who didn’t drink. Obviously I’m older but the dynamic has changed. I don’t know anyone now who would be browbeaten into drinking or be quizzed as to “why”. It’s perfectly normal (as it was jn 1988) but it’s been accepted by the mainstream as more and more people can see the health benefits.
I think I read somewhere that a huge percentage of the current drinking age generation do not drink at all which is a huge sea change. I see that being normalised rather than the other way around.
Half my friends now don’t drink at all. I went out the other week and it was only two of a group of eight who actually had a drink. Went to a bbq and they’re usually messy dragged out affairs and half the people weren’t drinking.
In India places like these are bustling all night. It’s crazy how dead London is at night
23 comments
Most European countries have this, it’s a surprise it’s taken this long for the UK to catch up
Late opening South Asian cafes and cake shops are a real bonus for people, like me, who don’t drink alcohol.
A lot of people need to accept that the city, and culture has changed.
London is near dead at night due to rich people in the city centre. They’re shutting-down night-life and demanding early closing times. They want a village-atmosphere in the centre of a city of 9 million people.
This is what we grew up doing in the UAE, grab some chai, snacks and chill by the beach
All cities in the UK need late night coffee shops. I’m a drinker but don’t always want a pub atmosphere on an evening.
The Lounges are good for this too. Shame there aren’t many around London compared to the rest of the country.
I was in a had coffee and cake in a cafe (Soho) on Saturday night which closed at 11pm.
Grateful to be able to do that in London as I don’t like the pub.
Many just view central London as a place where they work and afterwards go home, it was very different from years ago when many stayed on and meet up with friends for the night life and now many can’t afford living in zone 1 and 2 and live on the outskirts. I just don’t see it coming back soon especially with the cost of living many are going through
South Korea has a big coffee culture and most coffee chains are open until 10pm. Albeit they do open after the morning rush (around 9pm). But they are great for evening catch ups.
When I lived in Sacramento there was a great spot called Dessert Diner where you could go till late at night and get amazing cakes, pies, sundaes and coffee etc. Same kind of deal with the likes of 24 hour Denny’s and other breakfast places. Something cool about eggs and pancakes with great coffee at 2am and seeing all the creatures of the night that come and go.
What happened to Platform, they opened late.
Too pricey?
London shuts down early 😅, I wish it was a proper 24hr city
Also despite supposedly being a city which ‘never sleeps’, it’s surprisingly hard to find anything within London which is truly 24 hours.
Best bet are some horrible casinos, Heathrow, or Heston Services on the M4…
London is so lame at night
The problem with London is that barely anyone lives in the centre, preventing an organic culture of just *hanging out*, whilst at the same time it draws life away from the towns in the outer zones where people actually live.
In some ways, some of the UK’s medium size towns are actually better at night, for regular, ordinary use, than London because of this.
Don’t get me wrong, the pure scale and beauty of London at night (the buildings lit up, the Thames etc) make it incomparable, but if you want to just hang out, or maybe even go for a casual dance, London is quite frustrating.
I’ve been to NYC a few times and it’s quite striking how *alive* Manhattan feels at night compared to London. But that’s at least partly because people live a lot more centrally in NYC.
Asian dessert places, middle east cafes, night marketa are the best
Shishawi for this exact reason. Mint tea and chess.
This. Working in the Square Mile, Polo Bar (which is more of a cafe/less greasy spoon) has been so useful when you wanted to catch up with a colleague after work in a non-pub setting and you didn’t want to grab a full meal. There clearly is a demand as that place is always rammed (does help its right on Bishopsgate opposite Liverpool St so it has the footfall).
Having coffee late at night is underrated, there’s a Cafe Nero in Soho that closes at 2 and we need more of this kind of thing
Bar Italia in Soho used to be great for 24hr caffeination.
It’ll come as more and more people drink less or stop and the pubs slowly die out. It’s on a downward trend since Covid anyway. Places will need to adapt to survive.
When I first started drinking it was positively abnormal to not drink. I didn’t know anyone who didn’t drink. Obviously I’m older but the dynamic has changed. I don’t know anyone now who would be browbeaten into drinking or be quizzed as to “why”. It’s perfectly normal (as it was jn 1988) but it’s been accepted by the mainstream as more and more people can see the health benefits.
I think I read somewhere that a huge percentage of the current drinking age generation do not drink at all which is a huge sea change. I see that being normalised rather than the other way around.
Half my friends now don’t drink at all. I went out the other week and it was only two of a group of eight who actually had a drink. Went to a bbq and they’re usually messy dragged out affairs and half the people weren’t drinking.
In India places like these are bustling all night. It’s crazy how dead London is at night