Alcohol history in London
London's alcohol history is a story of gin panics, tied pubs, hotel bars, and a twenty-first-century gin boom that reused the city's own legal style name.
Gin Lane and reform
Eighteenth-century cheap gin caused a public-health crisis and a wave of regulation. Later quality rules helped create the London Dry style sold worldwide.
The tied pub and cask ale
Brewer-owned pubs shaped what Londoners drank for generations. Campaigns for cask ale in the late twentieth century kept hand pumps on many bars.
Hotel bars and the gin revival
American Bar at The Savoy and later cocktail rooms professionalised mixed drinks. From the 2000s, new London distilleries put gin production back inside the M25.
Last orders and licensing are local. Sunday hours and quiet streets after midnight are not the same as a national dry day.
Culture guide, not a dry-day calendar
World pages describe famous drinks, history, and common legal drinking ages. They are not legal advice and they do not say whether alcohol is banned today. For India dry days, use the homepage or a city or state calendar.