Revealing the geography of food (in)accessibility for nighttime workers in the Greater London Area
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: The lived experiences of those who work at night have been subject to increased attention from both scholars and policy makers; however, there remains limited geospatial and quantitative evidence on the challenges they face and how these unfold across space and time. This gap is most evident in the continued dependence on “daytime” data and assumptions, that presume the traditional “9–5” working day, at the expense of the specific needs of night workers. In this context, lack of access to food has emerged as a critical yet underexplored issue. While recent accessibility models increasingly account for the temporal dynamics of their supply-side components (e.g., service operating hours), they either overlook population dynamics or treat nighttime populations as homogenous, thus masking the distinct service needs of active night workers. This study addresses these limitations by developing the first dynamic food accessibility model that explicitly accounts for the shifting spatial distribution of night workers in Greater London. Leveraging novel mobile phone location data, we provide deeper insights into the spatial and temporal realities of working at night in London. Beyond demonstrating that access to food retail outlets for night workers is markedly poorer than for daytime workers, our proposed (in)sufficient accessibility framework identifies where and when this issue is most acute. Through its empirical insights and methodological innovations, this article therefore contributes to ongoing debates on spatial justice and nighttime urban strategies.
Source: Urban Studies
Authors: Michał Iliev, James Cheshire, Stephen Law
Institution: University College London
Language: English
Topic: Night-time city culture
Subfield: Urban Studies
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $3,900
OpenAlex ID: W7135022069