[lmm]

On a sunny Sunday afternoon sure - and there's a great park culture in London under those circumstances. But after work, in bad weather and/or winter? I want a room, a "third place" for socializing (and I want alcohol available there, because I'm bad at socializing without it). Americans tend to call such places bars (as a Brit I wouldn't generally think of them as that). They're certainly not all dark rooms that look alike.