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Music

Shocking Report Reveals High Number of Club Closures In the UK

Britain has lost nearly half of its venues since 2005.

We've been bringing you sad tales of club closures in the UK at an increasingly alarming rate over recent months, but some recent figures released by the Association of Licensed Multiple Retailers has offered some perspective on just how drastic the situation has become over the last ten years. According to the ALMR there are now only 1,733 clubs in the UK — down from 3,144 in 2005. That means that in the last ten years, the UK has lost nearly half of its clubs. A worrying result to say the least.

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So what does this suggest for British nightlife? Well, sadly it points towards the growing feeling that aside the high profile cases of The Arches, or Plastic People, clubs have been closing down on a much larger, almost systematic scale. It is also interesting to note that these developments have occurred over a ten year period, suggesting the shift in nightlife culture has been in process for longer than we might have first thought. ALMR head Kate Nicholls, in conversation with Newsbeat, placed the issue largely with how easy it has become to complain about noise, saying "People want to have their cake and eat it. [If] you want vibe and to live in a cool area, then you need the other, edgier side of it." Perhaps these startling figures will be a wake up call as to just how extreme the situation has become.

Figures via Newsbeat.

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