Talk about dying for a drink. Mourners at a crematorium in Bristol will soon be able to buy drinks in a fully licensed bar set up on the site, thereby enabling post-funeral wakes to proceed in the manner to which we are all accustomed. Cheers.

The granting of such a licence – the first of its kind in the UK – is undoubtedly the result of the Licensing Act 2003, which came into effect in November 2005. This more relaxed legislation allowed pubs to open longer hours (potentially round-the-clock) and made it much easier for operators to obtain alcohol licences on a wide variety of premises. 

That a crematorium has been given the green light to sell alcohol is proof that the decade-old relaxation of the rules has gradually come to positive fruition. But it wasn’t supposed to be like this if you’d read the scaremongering headlines gratuitously spewed out by the national media at the time.

Predictably, The Daily Mail led the doom-laden charge in forecasting there would be total mayhem on the streets. It protested that we were looking down the (beer) barrel at a nightmare of Hogarthian proportions across the country. The 11pm ‘chuck-out’ had been bad enough, it argued, but having drinkers falling out of pubs early the next morning and skipping work was simply too much to stomach.

The reality was all rather boringly British. Hardly any pubs or bars sought to obtain a 24-hour licence and, in the main, the public largely stuck to habits of old. The majority of premises simply extended their peak weekend openings by a couple of hours and that pretty much remains the situation today.

But what has also happened, rather subtly, is we have gradually taken on a more Continental-style of drinking, whereby food has increasingly become part of a night on the sauce. We also have genuine cafe-style premises today serving alcohol in an environment a world away from the pre-2005 scenario.

This ‘continentalisation’ of our drinking habits clearly didn’t happen overnight. The drink-to-get-drunk mentality remains part of the British psyche, but there is also plenty of proof that we have embraced some of the more Mediterranean attitudes of our European neighbours towards alcohol. Many of us will no doubt recognise this feature when enjoying a night out on holiday abroad.

Yes, those overhead heaters have made a difference as they’ve allowed us to sit outside in the freezing British winter pretending we are on holiday in sunnier climes, but our changing attitude is arguably down to the more relaxed laws. They have enabled alcohol to be presented in a whole variety of different ways – and not just via the rather binary ‘behind-frosted-glass’ way that pervaded our culture when only pubs and clubs were purveyors of the drug.

We now have a situation where the likes of Pret A Manger and McDonald’s sell alcohol in specific venues. And not to be left out, SSP has just applied for licences to sell alcohol in its Burger King sites at Victoria, Paddington, and Fenchurch Street Stations. Starbucks has just opened a unit at Euston station that offers premium wines and beers alongside hot and cold sharing plates. This follows its opening of a cafe on London’s Upper St Martin’s Lane that has a distinctly more wine bar than coffee bar vibe about it – especially when the lights go down and the post-work crowd descends.

Clearly you can drink in these places all day long if you choose, but in reality who would? This is the whole point of a relaxation in that it removes some of the illicit from the scenario. Illicit no doubt has its part to play for some people but for the mainstream to embrace a more adult attitude to drinking there has arguably needed to be this opening up of alcohol distribution.

The reality is, according to the Market Growth Monitor from AlixPartners and CGA Peach, that we now have more than 124,000 licensed premises – up 0.6% on 2014. More than two-thirds of British towns have had the number of pubs, bars, restaurants and clubs (selling alcohol, of course) rise or stay the same in the past 12 months. This has coincided with alcohol consumption at its lowest this century. The fact is, the driver of growth in the number of hospitality outlets is food-led licensed premises whose increase has more than offset the decline that has continued in the number of drink-led pubs.

Sad as it is to see some of the old-school boozers with their limited or zero food offerings going to the wall, the fact is the nation is inexorably shifting to a society that consumes its alcohol in a different way, and in a variety of types of venue – frequently with food. This is surely just what was envisaged when the new Licensing Act came into play in 2005 but it has, not surprisingly, taken us a little time to get there. 

As a director at FSC and senior lecturer at Leeds Beckett University, I spend a fair chunk of time looking at trends – and what’s ‘hot’ – in the leisure and hospitality sector. It’s a tough gig, but one I try to embrace…

Nowhere is this important work more interesting or exciting than in Leeds. The city has managed to support the development of one of the UK’s most exciting independent food and drink scenes, attracting some fantastic restaurant and bar operators that have developed high-profile and highly successful businesses.

Some of these innovative entrepreneurial start-ups, such as Red’s True Barbecue, have become benchmark operations: talked about and much admired across the UK eating and drinking-out landscape, and set fast on the expansion trail. The emergence of Leeds as one of the most vibrant markets in the land is now seemingly self-perpetuating, with equal numbers of new-wave start-ups vying with multiple operators and larger corporates for a bite of the city. How much further the market can grow remains to be seen, but what is certain is the Yorkshire city is a great jumping-off point for those who need to keep pace with current trends or who want to see some of the most innovative operators and concepts available anywhere. My study tour of the town, in no particular order, would include:

A craft beer bar before craft beer bars even existed. The team behind North Bar have gone on to create The Crosskeys, Further North, Alfred, Preston, and North Bar Social in Otley. What next? Its own brewery, North Brewing Co, has just started production, and a new bar opens in Harrogate soon.

If North Bar was the first wave, then the next two represent the second wave. Observer Food Monthly winner Friends of Ham focuses on craft beer, charcuterie and cheese. It has just extended the original site and added a second in Ilkley. www.friendsofham.co.uk

Bundobust brings the family cooking of Prashad – Gordon Ramsey’s Great British Restaurant finalist – to bear, combining Indian street food with craft beer. Such has been the acclaim, a second Bundobust is set to open in Manchester in early 2016. www.bundobust.com 

With venues such as Bottega Milanese and Mrs Athas, the city centre has no shortage of quality independent coffee shops, all with loyal followings. The recently opened Sheaf Street Cafeteria is my pick. It’s the second venture from Laynes and is giving the owners the opportunity to showcase their food ambitions, which were held back by the size of their original, eponymous site. www.laynesespresso.co.uk

A brave move for a retail developer, Land Securities’ food offer in its Trinity Leeds shopping centre features a rotating roster of street-food vendors. Every six weeks, six new traders are brought in to create a diverse buzz. Expect a mix of local street-food heroes such as Mankits Kitchen and Fish&, along with national names from London such as Meatwagon, Rola Wala and Bank Wok – all of which have since opened permanent restaurants in the city. Visit www.trinityleeds.com/trinitykitchen for a flavour.

Drinks consultancy Hedonist’s newly opened Hedonist Project is its flagship bricks-and-mortar concept and a ‘permanent pop-up’. The company said that instead of offering a seasonal menu in a bar, it will run a seasonal bar that changes every three months. The first focuses on whisky. www.hedonistdrinks.co.uk

Another in a wave of exciting new brewers, Northern Monk has just made the city centre home with a new brew house, tap room and refectory showcasing its own beers alongside a wide selection of guests in a converted flax mill. The kitchen is run by the Grub & Grog shop, which is creating a buzz itself with its seasonal menu. www.northernmonkbrewco.com

The Belgrave music venue, bar and street-food kitchen offer has proved a big hit with its monthly feast events that bring together up to ten different chefs, food producers and street-food vendors going from strength to strength. The team’s newly opened Headrow House is the Belgrave’s grown-up (but still up-for-a-good-time) big brother. It features Ox Club as its core food offer, with an imposing, custom-made imported Grillworks grill as the centrepiece of the kitchen, which has a mission to showcase the diversity of cooking with solid fuel. It looks like it’s doing just that. www.headrowhouse.com

One to watch for 2016: Dough Bistro’s self-taught chef Luke Downing’s new city-centre venue will undoubtedly bring his food and cocktail creativity to a wider, and deserved, audience. A downstairs cocktail bar is already trading with the restaurant set to open in March. Its website www.viceandvirtueleeds.co.uk is something of a holding page and the name is a homage to the venue’s history as a gentleman’s club.

Aside from the above, there is also a raft of established operators which have made Leeds home, including BrewDog, D&D London, Iberica and Living Ventures. So what are you waiting for? If a New Year’s resolution is get out into the market more, it’s time to book a ticket to Leeds.