Salford named one of the worst places to go on a night out in the UK

Salford has been ranked as one of the worst places to go on a night out in the UK, according to a new study.

Although there have been numerous pub closures over the last years there are plenty of fantastic areas around Salford to spend an evening out including Worsley, Monton and Salford Quays.

There’s also the quirky artsy pub The Kings Arms and other favourites including the Eagle Inn, The Old Pint Pot, The Black Friar, and plenty more — so we think it’s a great place for nightlife.

Public First, a policy, research, opinion and strategy consultancy, has taken an in-depth look at the number of pubs, bars and restaurants in cities and towns in comparison with the population to compile its findings.

It also looked at how the rate has changed over the years to produce its ‘Night Out Index 2023’ – and it’s not looking great for ‘sunny’ Salford.

Manchester came in at number 10 but Salford, aka the ‘other city’, ranked 109 out of 112 towns and cities that were analysed.

The Public First Night Out Index 2023 showed that Salford has 2.83 restaurants, 2.83 bars and pubs, and 0.47 clubs per 10,000 people.

Just under half (46%) of major towns and cities in England and Wales have seen an improvement in nightlife over the past decade — Leeds, Liverpool and Halifax lead the way with a circa 20% increase in the per capita number of night time establishments — while the remainder (54%) have seen a deterioration .

Meanwhile, Rochdale, Mansfield and Dudley have seen the biggest declines in nightlife over this time period (-29.3%, -28.3% and -27.8% respectively). 

In a bid to strengthen the night time economy, both London and Manchester have appointed ‘night czars’. Amy Lamé, who has served as London’s Night Czar since 2016, is meant to be putting ‘the Mayor’s Vision for London as a 24-hour city into action’.

In 2018 Sacha Lord was unveiled as Greater Manchester’s first-ever night-time economy adviser, supported by a night-time economy panel which will ‘develop, discuss and deliver plans to develop the city-region’s nightlife, making it stronger, safer, better-connected, and an even more attractive destination’. 

One caveat with the Night Out Index is its focus on licensed establishments as a measure of the strength of the night time economy, despite the rise of non-drinking — yes, drinking alcohol is becoming less popular it seems.

This reflects data limitations, which make it difficult to unpick which unlicensed premises are open in the evening rather than just during daytime (e.g. coffee shops and ice cream parlours).

While harder to tease out of the data, some parts of the country may also be benefitting from a rise in unlicensed evening establishments catering to changing consumer demands.

Take, for example, the growth in late night dessert parlours or, according to Freedom of Information requests, the more than 500% increase in the number of shisha bars in the UK since the mid 2000s. 

It’s not all bad news, with the ever changing way in which a growing share of the British public likes to spend its evenings, local night time economies have had to evolve to reflect changing consumer trends and habits.

Fewer of us drink than in the past and so trying to achieve the past ideal of a pub culture would not be feasible. There are now more alternatives to traditional evening activities to suit peoples’ tastes, from escape rooms to dessert parlours to greater options for home entertainment with the rise of streaming services. 

Salford’s night time establishments have declined by 2.3% in the past decade but perhaps that’s because more people are packing them out, and the rest are spending their evenings visiting other alternative venues to traditional pubs, bars and clubs.