Borough where it’s always closing time for pubs
Half the pubs in a London borough have closed in the past 20 years — more than anywhere else in Britain.
Campaigners blame rising beer prices and demand from developers for the demise of the "traditional back-street boozer".
Southwark and Tower Hamlets have been worst hit with twice as many pubs forced to close in the two boroughs over the past decade than in the whole of Birmingham.
Neil Pettigrew, of the Campaign for Real Ale, said: "Peckham used to be packed with little Victorian boozers down the back streets but now we're just left with bland high street pubs.
"South-east and east London are some of the poorest parts of London so there's no point in creating gastropubs charging £10 for sausage and mash, whereas people in Putney and Sheen would be happier to pay that."
Mr Pettigrew has spent four years researching the pubs of south-east London. In the 1988 CAMRA guide there were 386 pubs listed, but by two years ago 167 of them had been demolished or turned into flats.
Mr Pettigrew said: "These back-street boozers were Victorian buildings oozing with character and they were essential social hubs. Now almost all have gone.
"We are heading for a situation where, in a few years' time, all we will have left are the big high street chain pubs. The pubs that this country was once famous for will have gone."
