Zacs-Master - "//Exit the cosy local pub, enter 'vertical' bars where most of the seating has been removed because analysis shows that people drink more if they stand up. Add the ear-shattering music, and the notion of socialising has gone.//
You've simply described a nightclub here rather than a pub."
I disagree. When I was in my teens and twenties, pubs were cosy locals, and nightclubs were for dancing, and a late drink, with masses of seating and dance floors.
Pubs - at least modern pubs in town centres, are vertical bars as I have described - they stay open until the early hours, and have similarly led to the death of the discoteque / nightclub venues which always charged admission as part of their licensing arrangements, and that wall all year, not just the high days and holidays when town centre pubs charge admissions.
"Pubs include 'vertical drinking areas' usually accompanied by a TV but seating has not been stripped out wholsale as you suggest."
If you check out any of the popular town centre bars populated by under-twenty-fives, you will find they are as I have described.
"//....and that spells the death of any pub that does not provide cheap food//
Utterly incorrect. Up market (gastro pubs, if you like) are on the increase and many have michelin stars."
That is not the market and genre of pub I am discussing - by the same token, ethnic restaurants are increasing, and food standards as a whole have increased as more people eat out.
The standard 'local' pub cannot complete on alcohol sales alone, so they have had to opt for the standard 'pub food' market, which many pubs have opted for - they are entirely separate from gourmet pubs which in many cases have taken over a 'local' and then totally revamped it to attract diners, rather than the drinkers of old.