The Life and Many Deaths of the Local

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Pubs are dying out. The end of the local is fast incoming. Last of the last orders is nigh. Worries about the future of that much loved British institution - the local boozer - have been swirling for decades, right back to the end of WW2. And yet, the great British Boozer has weathered every crisis. Pubs have always been, and continue to be, a social leveller: a place of welcome and tradition - serving as community hubs, performance spaces, and informal parliaments fuelled by pints and opinions. But, the last few years have set records for pub closures. Over 15,000 pubs have closed since the year 2000, hundreds last year alone. If closures continue at this rate Britain risks losing a vital part of its soul for good. But perhaps the answer on how to stop what many pub lovers view as a cultural calamity might be found in how they survived the struggles of the past. Shane Richie dives in to the BBC Archive, discovering why the Victorian pub design is still so beloved, what happened on the night of the last pubs in a neighbourhood razed in the fever of post-war development, and how pubs have evolved to suit new communities as society shifts around them.