The government will allow pubs in England and Wales to close at 1am on 9 May to allow drinkers to continue celebrating into the early hours.
Wait...pubs over all of England and Wales can't stay open until 1 normally?
kagis
Hmmm.
Apparently, pubs in the UK typically stop serving alcohol earlier than in the US. TIL.
Apparently the standard deadline is 11 PM, but licenses can be granted that run longer:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcohol_licensing_laws_of_the_United_Kingdom
Until the 2003 Act came into force on 24 November 2005,[27] permitted hours were a standard legal constraint: for example, serving alcohol after 23:00 meant that a licensing extension had to exist—either permanent (as for nightclubs, for example), or by special application from the licensee concerned for a particular occasion. There was also a customary general derogation permitting a modest extension on particular dates, such as New Year's Eve and some other Public Holidays. Licensees did not need to apply for these and could take advantage of them if they wished without any formality. Now, permitted hours are theoretically continuous: it is possible for a premises licence to be held which allows 24-hour opening, and indeed some do exist.
Most licensed premises do not go this far, but many applied for licences in 2005 that allowed them longer opening hours than before. However, as in the past, there is no obligation for licensees to use all the time permitted to them. Premises that still close (for commercial reasons) at 23:00 during most of the week may well have licences permitting them to remain open longer, perhaps for several hours. Staying open after 23:00 on the spur of the moment is therefore legal at such premises if the licensee decides to do so. The service of alcohol must still cease when the licence closing time arrives. Only the holder of the comparatively rare true "24-hour" licence has complete freedom in this respect.
https://pos.toasttab.com/blog/on-the-line/last-call-for-alcohol-by-state
According to this, the earliest average last call time in the US is in Georgia, at 11:45 PM.
Most states are 1 AM or 2 AM.
Alaska runs until 5 AM.