One of Britain's most distinctive rituals is facing "death by style", according to academics who have braved the wild street parties of Newcastle's Bigg Market to help the government keep track of youth culture and social change.

Strappy tops, PVC miniskirts and the oceans of lager which have marked the Geordie "night on the toon" for years, are giving way to expensive wine bars and designer clothes, the £117,000 study finds. Most dramatically, for visitors astounded by the goosebumped but unstoppable pavement revellers on winter nights, "party city" is moving indoors.

The research, by Newcastle University, points to a trend away from predatory gangs - more often women than men - on the lookout for lager, a kebab and the chance to score, to evenings spent in "mixed use, bar-club concepts".

"You can feel it happening," said one regular clubber, Darren Rafferty, 27, yesterday, echoing the interviews given to the university researchers. "There's still a party atmosphere here, but it's going upmarket and it's moving to student land in

Jesmond and the Quayside." Alongside the Tyne, beneath the new millennium "blinking bridge", Sharon O'Donnell, a personal assistant, has monitored the change, noticing partygoers in venues such as the Pitcher and Piano wine bar ("lawyers drinking chardonnay instead of lager") and the nightclubs Baha and Sea. "It's labels everywhere instead of Top Shop or Miss Selfridge," she said. "There's a real divide happening, and the Quayside is the place winning out."

Another young person interviewed labelled the new style bars "just McDonald's with a marble bar". The study, Changing Our Toon - Youth, Nightlife and Urban Change, finds mixed feelings about the change among young Geordies and warns that local, independent bars and clubs face an uphill struggle against "invading" national chains. Robert Holland, of the department of sociology and social policy at Newcastle, said: "The style revolution in Newcastle is being driven by big national chains ... what the city centre really lacks are independently run bars and affordable entertainment such as live music, DJs and cabaret." Instead, the city has just got its first lap dancing club.

Mr Rafferty, said: "There's a lot of money around the Quayside from people working for blue chip or hi-tech companies. It's getting so that just the core of hard-drinking lads and lasses is left at Bigg Market."

Dr Holland added: "Our research shows that many of the new party places are aimed at these wealthy outsiders drawn to the party reputation. With lager edging above £3 a pint, many of Newcastle's poorer residents will not be able to join the party." But, meanwhile, Mr Rafferty is less pessimistic about the extinction of the Bigg Market, whose antics go back to the flashily dressed Bonny Pit Laddies of the early 19th century. "It'll always be the place to get amongst it, as they say up here. That's to say, to find yourself a partner for the evening - or get yourself into a fight."