The £5 entry is a good start. So is the loud, lively music booming down the nightclub’s stairway. But when I finally reach the dancefloor, hidden behind a curtain, my hopes for a wild night out in Birmingham are dashed. Despite the roving disco lights and blaring pop bangers, it is entirely empty, aside from a few bartenders milling around, tending to no one.

This isn’t 9pm on a random Tuesday. I am hitting the town on Saturday night, when the city’s bars and clubs should be in full swing, but Birmingham is looking like a bust.

Perhaps this was to be expected. The nightlife sector in the UK has declined massively in recent years. More than a quarter of all late-night venues across the UK shut their doors for good between 2020 and 2025, according to the Night Time Industries Association (NTIA) – and the “second city” has been hit particularly hard. Birmingham experienced a 28% drop in the number of bars, clubs and other establishments to grab a late-night drink in over the same period, the largest decline of any major UK city.