I was curious if gaming groups tended to center around local pubs like football clubs and other things.

No not really.

I live in Nottingham which is the 'sillicon valley' of wargames in the uk so my opinion is skewed but....

Round my way we have sooo many ex GW employees and so many spin off companies that you tend to know dozens of gamers anyway so dont actually need to go to clubs, we play at each others houses (well most of us in the industry/ex industry)

But we have warhammer world for GW games and few wargames cafes in Nottingham

A lot of clubs meet in public houses in their function room , sometimes my friends and I informally just play in a public bar area on a big table if we're playing a boardgame like lords of winterfell or thunderbirds or arkham horror etc etc.. i wouldnt take a miniatures game to a pub.

In other towns i've lived in the wargames clubs have been centered around either the university, a local store or organised in a community centre but there is a growing prevalence these days to what we used to call at GW 'hobby barns', basically independent games stores with a gaming room with a lot of tables, often a bar or at least tea / coffee /snacks etc.

Again.. back in the forces, some regiments had wargaming clubs but i think its more store based or home based in the UK these days,.

Like i say my perception may be skewed because my mates are all ex GW staff that i game with, or 'warlord' or 'mantic' or 'foundry' as there is just sooo much wagaming in nottingham. (we also have two big universities which again helps build big player bases)

Me and my buddy David used to play Magic at our local Irish pub. The staff were ok with that (and awesome blokes to!)