London pubs audit

As part of the Cultural Infrastructure Plan, an annual audit of pubs using the Inter-Departmental Business Register data is produced.

The overall number of pubs in London has remained largely unchanged since 2018.

• There were 3,535 pubs in London in 2023.
• Overall employee numbers increased in 2023 for the first time since the pandemic in 2020. In 2023, there were 49,000 jobs in London pubs, above the previous peak in 2020 at 48,000 jobs.
• The share of jobs in large pubs (with more than 10 employees) reached 85% in 2023, while the share of jobs in smaller pubs dropped to 14%, its lowest value in the data going back to 2001.
• Among local authorities, 13 recorded a decrease in pub numbers in 2023 compared to 2022, 13 recorded an increase and the rest saw no significant change.

The long-term trends remain the same as reported in the previous iteration of this analysis:

• Overall, pub numbers have declined over the past 21 years in most London boroughs and in the capital overall but employment has increased as the average pub has become larger.
• While the decline in pub numbers reflects an overall UK trend, the number of employees increased by more in London (17%) than the UK average (6%) since 2001.