LONDON — It's last call for the early pub closing times that have governed drinking in Britain since their introduction during World War I.

The government hopes the change, which takes effect at midnight Wednesday in England and Wales, will stop the flood of drunks onto city streets just after the traditional 11 p.m. closing time. But opponents say British consumption of alcohol — the most notorious, although hardly the heaviest, in Europe — should not be encouraged.

"We already see people who have been injured because they have drunk too much," said Martin Shalley of the British Association for Emergency Medicine. "I think this is now going to occur a lot more frequently."

Britain's licensing laws — largely unchanged since they were tightened in 1915 to keep factory workers sober — have long been derided as an anachronism. They required most pubs to close at 11 p.m. Monday to Saturday and 10:30 p.m. on Sundays.

The new rules allow pubs, bars, shops, restaurants and clubs to apply to open any hours they like, although each license must be approved by local authorities.

Supporters say the changes will end the scramble to guzzle as much booze as possible in the last minutes before closing time and so cut down on alcohol-fueled violence. They hope the new law will nudge Britons toward a Continental culture of gentle tippling rather than relentless chugging.

Thousands of pubs and bars have been granted later licenses under the new rules, although the vast majority have asked for an extra hour or two — hardly the "24-hour drinking" endlessly repeated in headlines. Only 700 establishments, including 240 pubs, applied for licenses for around-the-clock sales, according to government figures.

London's Evening Standard newspaper estimated that between a quarter and a third of licensed premises in the city had applied for later opening.

"The changes are not as dramatic as has been suggested, with most pubs opting to open for a few extra hours a week," said Neil Williams, spokesman for the British Beer and Pub Association.

The government's licensing minister, James Purnell, said the new law would mean that "at last grown-ups will be treated like grown-ups." Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell was quoted by The Independent newspaper as saying the old laws implied Germans, Italians, Australians and even Scots — who have had late-opening pubs for decades — were more "biologically civilized than the English."

But the new law has many opponents, including police chiefs who have warned of a rise in alcohol-fueled crime and health agencies who say alcohol consumption, and its attendant ills, will inevitably increase.

The government has said alcohol figures in 44 percent of violent crime, while booze-related mishaps account for 70 percent of hospital emergency-room cases at busy times.

Researchers say it is how Britons drink — not how much — that is the problem.

According to the World Health Organization, Britons consume less alcohol on average than in many other European countries including Ireland, Germany, France, Hungary and Spain. They are more likely, however, to drink in concentrated bursts.

That propensity for bingeing has spawned newspaper headlines warning that round-the-clock drinking would unleash tides of "drunken yobs" and "booze-fueled louts" on the nation.

"An epidemic of binge drinking, violence and alcohol-related illness is plaguing this country," lamented the Daily Mirror.

The Independent, in contrast, welcomed the end of "one of the most restrictive drinking regimes in Europe."

"We should all raise a celebratory glass," the newspaper said in an editorial.