Yeah, part of the issue is that historically we were wildly over-saturated with pubs due to the drinking culture, and as that's changed (along with the related

Yeah, part of the issue is that historically we were wildly over-saturated with pubs due to the drinking culture, and as that's changed (along with the related issue of taxes on alcohol having increased a lot) there's just far less demand for somewhere to drink. My parents used to occasionally visit a village near them in Essex famous for having a dozen pubs along the tiny high street... crazy. This is the country that upon being introduced to spirits for the first time promptly went into an alcoholic frenzy where people drunk themselves to death in large numbers. It is strange that England is the only country I can think of without any national spirits of its own though...