Liberty Games crowns Britain’s pub capital

Games room specialists Liberty Games analysed the addresses of 51,566 pubs and crowned Portsmouth as the pub capital of the UK, based on the number of pubs per square mile.

To work out the density of pubs in each location, Liberty used a list of pubs compiled by Get the Data derived from the Food Standard Agency's food hygiene ratings, the Office for National Statistics’ postcode directory, and area data for council districts.

Each pub featured in the list was assigned to a district based on its registered address.

With 12 pubs per square mile, Portsmouth topped Liberty’s list ahead of Liverpool, Bristol and Brighton and Hove.

However, the south coast city ranks 190th in the UK in terms of pubs per person, with around eight pubs per 10,000 people compared to London’s 261 pubs per 10,000.

Home to more than 4,500 pubs, London was also put under the spotlight by Liberty, which dissected the capital to determine the city’s most boozy borough.

The City of London came out on top by some distance, with 219 pubs per square mile – 173 more than second-placed Westminster.

At the other end of the spectrum, the Highland district of Scotland has an average of 0.003 pubs per square mile, the lowest in the UK.

Most pubs per square mile - UK top 10

Portsmouth – 12 pubs per square mile

Liverpool – 11 pubs per square mile

Bristol – 10 pubs per square mile

Brighton and Hove – 10 pubs per square mile

Norwich – 10 pubs per square mile

Dundee – 9 pubs per square mile

Manchester – 9 pubs per square mile

Nottingham – 9 pubs per square mile

Southampton – 9 pubs per square mile

Dudley – 8 pubs per square mile

Most pubs per square mile - top 10 London boroughs

City of London – 219 pubs per square mile

Westminster – 46 pubs per square mile

Camden – 33 pubs per square mile

Islington – 32 pubs per square mile

Hackney – 27 pubs per square mile

Kensington & Chelsea – 24 pubs per square mile

Hammersmith & Fulham – 21 pubs per square mile

Southwark – 18 pubs per square mile

Lambeth – 16 pubs per square mile

Wandsworth – 13 pubs per square mile