Central London nightlife is dead

I never go to central on a night out, but met some mates from out of town in Covent Garden for dinner tonight, and tried to go for drinks around Soho after, but struggled to find a single decent pub/bar that was wasn't closing down at 11. Friday night 11 o'clock centre of the capital city – everything was shut, streets basically empty. We were laughing saying it'd be easier to find somewhere in the provincial town we grew up in. Managed to find one bar that was open past 12, through a backdoor up six flights of stairs.

What's going on?

Safe to say I'm not making that mistake again.