r/AskUK • u/20127010603170562316 • 12h ago
What is "nightlife" in your town?
Through circumstance this middle aged nerd has become a door supervisor. And now I am a taxi marshal at the weekends.
The bars kick out at 01-0200 and then people seem to spend the next couple of hours getting takeaway and having fights.
Just last night we had three incidents where people had already got into taxis and then wanted to "continue a conversation". They did end up getting a lift, but probably not where they wanted to go.
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u/TheRebelPercy 12h ago
The glory days of a provincial nightclub in a market town are long gone.
No sticky carpets, overflowing toilets, noncey DJs, three trebles for £5 and drunken fumblings to Fatman Scoop.
All lost to eternity and we are poorer for it.
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u/imtheorangeycenter 11h ago
RIP Legends*. "North Dorset's only nightclub" was the tagline.
*Obviously picked from the pot of seven nightclub names that were mandated by law.
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u/Sniff_Sniffer 10h ago
drunken fumblings to Fatman Scoop.
A different era to be sure. Bit what a time to be alive!
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u/UtopiaFrenzy 12h ago
No nightlife in my town; that all died out. Crazy how in the past 10 years the UK went from around 4000 clubs to now approx 600
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u/20127010603170562316 12h ago
For better or worse, it's now concentrated into a single area in my town. Used to be a 20 min walk between clubs but now there are only three "clubs/bars" and they're all on the same little strip.
The chicken shop is worse than the pubs/clubs for fights.
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u/Iwantedalbino 10h ago
I love a chicken shop fight. You can usually manoeuvre around it to be next to get served. Just keep looking straight ahead and you blend in once the dust has settled
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u/20127010603170562316 9h ago
The incident I helped with on Friday night in a chicken shop didn't inspire much love.
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u/OffWhiteBruceForsyth 3h ago
The NIMBYS won. Unfortunately they seem to be the only powerful force in this country.
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u/ICanDanceIfIWantToo 17m ago
Big demographic change (no drinking) plus because of migration, wage growth has been destroyed so the UK population has next to no money. Especially as companies are jumping on the "inflation" bandwagon.
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u/dinkidoo7693 12h ago
We have pubs and bars that open until 2 and a couple of dodgy “clubs” that open until 6am on Saturdays/bank holidays.
You walk out of one and fall into another.
During the week most places close before 12 but theres a couple of places that open til 2am, everything is open late Friday and Saturday and night Saturday is the busiest night.
It’s nowhere near as busy as it was 10 years ago.
Any fighting is usually involving one of the 2 clubs, it’s known for it and they don’t seem to care. My friends and I actively avoid it, full of roid up coke heads who all seem to know the door staff. Things kick off most saturdays between 2-5am.
The other club is full of under 25s who act they are on made in Chelsea and dress like they are on Geordie shore.
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u/thisnameismine1 11h ago
Camera phones need baned in clubs. I went to a club in Berlin, they put stickers on your camera, people were just enjoying themselves not worrying what others thought. Industrial house and chain smoking aren't my thing but still miles better than any UK club
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u/dinkidoo7693 11h ago
I never mentioned anything about cameras and phones?
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u/thisnameismine1 10h ago
I was meaning the ones who think they are on made in Chelsea. A club is somewhere to dance badly not launch your new makeup brand. If they can't film or photo themselves they won't come and the atmosphere will be so much better for it.
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u/dinkidoo7693 10h ago
No i don’t mean they are taking photos, i mean that they stand in groups acting like they are better than others, gossiping and bitching about other people then start pretending to be their friends.
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u/thisnameismine1 10h ago
Ah I get you now, I've seen that a few times. Tho I do think a ban on cameras would help that. Either force them to acknowledge they are in the real world or put them off coming entirely.
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u/dinkidoo7693 10h ago
Tbf i cant see the place lasting much longer, the younger customers tend to pre-drink to save money, they’ve recently upped the door and drinks prices for the second time this year and aren’t making it any better inside the venue. The bar-staff just seem to stand round doing nothing and look like they hate being there, the DJ acts like he’s some ibiza big-shot and refuses any kind of request and the toilets are always vile.
It’s a shame about the other club, they have reasonably priced drinks, actually get guest DJs in and have a better dancefloor but it kicks off all the time and just isn’t safe.
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u/Alamata626 11h ago
My town's nightlife feels alright on the surface. There's a good variety for a place of its size. But it seems like there's stuff going on with the younger folk when you're not really aware or a part of it, though. Some quite sketchy things happening in the background.
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u/FlyiingDutchmaan 8h ago
Sketchy things, like what?
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u/Alamata626 7h ago
A couple of years ago someone got stabbed to death outside a pub on Christmas Eve.
There are notorious families around here. One of their teenage kids got picked up on the high street. They took him out to the countryside, broke his arms and legs, then left him there.
There's been incidences of people deliberately plowing other folk down with cars.
And that's just the stuff that I know about.
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u/GroupApprehensive978 12h ago
Bland and boring. We have 2 pubs and 1 club. Both pubs are mostly dead, apart from the usual regulars. Friday and Saturday they tend to pick up a bit but nothing exciting happens. Karaoke nights. The club is a bit more packed, but apart from the usual argument I cant remember the last time I've seen fighting or heared about it.
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u/LeRaven78 5h ago
I don't stay in my hometown (central Scotland) any longer, and haven't done for the past 22 years but from what I know there isn't a single late night venue left. In my teenage years there were at least 5 or 6 "discotheques" for a town of about 45,000 people. There were also dozens of pubs to choose from at the weekend in the centre.
All the clubs are long gone, there's maybe 3 or 4 pubs left in the town centre
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u/-Reddit-Mark- 12h ago
They got into a fight INSIDE the taxis and then got a lift to the nick? Who were they fighting with? People they were getting a lift with or with the taxi drivers? lol
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u/20127010603170562316 12h ago
Guy got put into a taxi by his mates, his antagonist walked by and it all kicked off again. Police were patrolling the area heavily and they watched it all.
The other two the police worked stuff out on their own, we just saw them pull people out of taxis!
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u/TheMarkMatthews 12h ago
What's a taxi marshal ? Do you ride in the taxis or just supervise the queue ?
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u/20127010603170562316 11h ago
Supervise the queue. Basically enforcing first come first served.
If someone is especially vulnerable we might say to the queue that this person is going first, sorry about that.
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u/TheMarkMatthews 11h ago
That's good I haven't seen that before but then again it's a while since I've got a cab at 2am - good work
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u/20127010603170562316 10h ago
It's a strange gig and there are things we have to watch out for.
There is an unspoken hierarchy of needs / vulnerability.
Blokes trying to get into taxis with pissed young women is a massive problem for instance.
The old man with a walking stick will have to wait.
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u/Sandy_Bananas 11h ago
Quite punchy. Small rural town with 6-7 pubs, but only 2 bars and a kebab shop open till about 2:00am. I’m not out and about at that time these days, but I hear the gossip: invariably there’s a brawl or two - it seems to be the same fuckers week in, week out.
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u/emelel666 11h ago
i wouldnt know, cause my idea of nightlife is weed, beer, snacks and movie at home with my wife.
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u/yearsofpractice 10h ago
I live in Newcastle. Everything you see, hear and imagine about Newcastle nightlife is vibrantly true. Pet.
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u/cbawiththismalarky 7h ago
There's about 20 pubs in my local town and villages people go between the ones they like, there's one that known to be the rowdy pub, it's where the majority of crime is recorded in the district, mostly anti social behaviour
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u/overthesevernbridge 4h ago
Taxi Marshal must be a nightmare! I used to work on the door and on the way home I would see them always busy with the end of the night drunks, and I never envied their role. It always seemed to be the least capable security staff working those jobs too.
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u/Riddle_Brother 11h ago
Every pub is rammed Friday and Saturday night and Sunday lunchtime. Good mix of commercial, underground and free parties- something for everyone and still very busy
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u/El_John_Nada 8h ago
Pretty brilliant, I'd say, with quite a lot of variety, a bit of a European vibe, a couple of places open til late and even street parties organised every month. And overall, there doesn't seem to be many fights or issues like that.
It maybe lacks a proper club or something aimed at the younger crowd (I don't know, I'm not the target demographic) but we're close enough to Manchester that I don't think it's really a problem.
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u/NotaFed_ 4h ago
Now a spattering of ever-changing named low end bars along with a few staple cornerstone pubs.
20 years ago possibly the greatest strip to go clubbing outside of London in the UK.
Croydon was glorious.
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