#MYLDNites (29)

Me and my camera in my home town at night, my capital city, my london..nites

Alcohol giveth but it doth also taketh away…as you can see from this week’s collection of London’s nightlife. If there is one thing you can be pretty certain of finding on the city’s streets at night is a lot of drunk people. Alcohol fuelled nights out have always been an integral part of British culture but apparently its grip on our society is waning, even though hospital A&E departments might tell you different. Recent statistics show that the youth are turning away from booze binges in favour of online marathons instead. A shift in socialising into the virtual world has meant that there are seemingly less young folk getting wasted in public, although I have to say that it is not immediately evident from my experience.

What has changed is that a lot of bars are often conspicuously lacking a younger demographic and you are more likely to find 30something professionals than their broke 20something counterparts. London rents also mean that they are more likely to be stuck at home with their parents rather than being out on the town. So, isn’t this all a triumph for society? Keeping the kids off the sauce? Protecting them from themselves with prohibitively expensive prices?

Alcohol can be a very destructive force but it’s also important to remember that it has brought people together for thousands of years and helped them bond, have a good time and escape the horrors of daily drudgery. And even though its detrimental effects on our health are now well documented is it not necessarily worse than the habits that are replacing it. It has been proven that inactivity and over-eating are equally as harmful so its not actually a healthier choice to stay at home. I read yesterday that by 2020 more liver transplants will be linked to over-eating than to alcohol abuse. It has also been well documented that the amount of money that used to be spent by NHS dealing with smoking related diseases is now being spent dealing with obesity induced illnesses. Booze and fags were demonised for being unhealthy but it just shifted consumption elsewhere. We might as well all have stayed in the pub, got wasted together and had some fun instead of being isolated on our sofas watching back-to-back netflix and gorging on junk. Food for thought…

If you would like to see the full #MYLDNites gallery please click here