To think video may have killed the radio star but the internet killed the pub!

I think it's more cost than anything else. Go to Spain and a glass of wine and a pint is five or six euros, sometimes even less. Everyone's out - old and young, pensioners, families. Here in the southeast it can be £14, even £16 in London. for the same two drinks. Buy two rounds and you've spent £30. It's become really hard to afford or justify.

Prices killed the pub. Where I live you need a second mortgage to buy a round.

I love the Borough! And the Rummer Tavern. And the piece de resistance of traditional Cardiff pubs…the Old Arcade.

Not many of these left now, it’s so sad.

@SullivanCh , I think you do have a point in that the internet has been a contributory factor, along with the usual suspects of the smoking ban, Covid, CoL crisis etc in the demise of the local pub. Also (and I promise I am not Tim Martin!!) the VAT anomaly between pubs and supermarkets plays a role.

I am from Newport and have lived in SE Wales most of my life and wow, some of the wonderful pubs we have lost, and I never thought we would lose, because they were so fab…

Ever noticed how the Wetherspoons pubs are always pretty full (around these parts, anyway) when others aren’t? People seem to like to knock the Spoons but, by the same token, they also seem to like to go there.

I share your nostalgia x

The only pubs that have survived near me are ones that are family oriented. Gone are the ones that men would go into outside the station to avoid parenting for a few hours.

Also housing is more comfortable and warm and perhaps people went to pub as home was overcrowded and cold and no tv. I’m thinking more of earlier in 20th century

@SaladSandwichesForTeaI disagree. My dp would much prefer a couple of drinks in the kitchen of a Friday night, I would much prefer going to the pub! Also 0 of the men we are friends with would expect their dinner on the table after being at the pub every night after work.

Very old school way of thinking in my opinion.

I don’t think the smoking ban killed pubs. In 2007 only 21% of people smoked, which is only a 1% difference on today.

I think habits have just changed. Back in the day you’d meet your friends for a drink in the pub. People want more now if they go out. Friends meet for meals, or spa days, or theatre trips, or city breaks. Nobody is content with a humble drink in the local anymore.

@TranceNation I completely agree.

I think the smoking ban originally killed the pub, most people who smoked then, have given up, but the generation afterwards didn't bother with the pub.

Also lack of nightclubs, we always had a lot of choice, 80's nightclubs, over 25's, etc nowadays most are shut down, the ones that are open have young 18+ usually full of drugs.

I go out to different occasionally, every quarter, but I find people are gone wild.

More women working and expecting more from men is what killed it. More palatable to blame a gov initiative than women though.

We earn more equally now so we have more of a say, and most women don't want to

1. be in the pub every week,
2. Expect to put dinner on the table and wait nicely for the blokes to come home after the pub that they stop in every night after work.

The laws relating to drinking and driving certainly killed off rural pubs.

The smartphone, specifically the cameras coupled with social media had put an entire generation of young people off ever getting drunk so they stayed away from pubs. And lockdown all but killed them off entirely.

"People" tend to, do they? Have you done a survey?

When I grew up in the 70’s and eighties, there wasn’t the same culture of drinking at home that we have now and the supermarkets didn’t sell much in the way of wine and beer.

There has obviously been massive social changes, but personally, I would blame Tesco before I blamed the internet.

FwIW I was in middle school when the Buggles song came out, and remember our teacher using it as a sound track for an assembly about canal transport being taken over by the railways.

A bottle of wine in the supermarket costs the same as a glass of wine in the pub.. maybe that's why

I wouldn’t ascribe advances in health consciousness to the internet. If it were not for the internet, they would have gotten the same information by any of the other mediums we have.

Internet killed the pub discussions...

Used to be a table of debate now it's Google says xyz.

Coming up over £6 a pint where I live - can’t justify that cost anymore

The Borough is a nice old pub in Cardiff Op.

YANBU, but I don’t think it was the internet alone. The huge increase in prices had a lot to do with it as well. It’s very sad. I remember lots of older men whose only regular human contact was from going to pubs that have since closed, so there must be a lot more loneliness then there used to be.

I agree with this, and I’d also add younger people being more aware of the health risks of excessive drinking. Most of the 20 somethings I know are fairly health conscious, and that’s due to the internet.