Hours cut for troubled club
Wednesday May 5, 2010
The licence for a former West Kensington club that courted controversy following several stabbings has been stripped back following a review.
Sergeant Peter Stewart-Maunder from the police’s Avonmore and Brook Green Safer Neighbourhood Team called for the premises licence of the former Crescent Club in North End Crescent to be reviewed following stabbings, fights and disturbances in the area.
Hammersmith & Fulham Council’s licensing sub-committee agreed with the police’s recommendations to scale back the bar’s opening hours to 11pm on Monday to Thursday, midnight on Friday and Saturday, and to 10.30pm on Sunday. The club’s licence had previously allowed for it to remain open until 1am from Monday to Wednesday, 2am from Thursday to Saturday and until midnight on Sunday.
The sub-committee also agreed with the police’s calls for a condition allowing the club to have occasional extensions to the licence to be culled and for extra conditions to be placed on the licence.
The club’s management team will have to become a member of the Pubwatch scheme, update the CCTV system and stop using external promoters to hold nights at the club. Security staff have to be registered with the Security Industry Authority and no nudity or adult entertainment is allowed in the bar.
Sergeant Stewart-Maunder said: “In response to the numerous complaints and concerns raised by the public, primarily local residents, police monitored the club on a number of occasions, both overtly and covertly. On these occasions they have observed breaches of the existing licence – the club permitting multiple entries after midnight.
“In addition to these breaches officers witnessed numerous and extended incidents of antisocial behaviour. Those attending the venue were observed fighting, urinating in private gardens, shouting, sounding car horns, littering and being generally disorderly and boisterous.”
Sergeant Stewart-Maunder also pointed out that external promoters hosting events attracted people who ‘readily engaged in serious crime and disorder’. He told the sub-committee of 16 serious incidents, including a murder, attempted murder, a serious sexual assault and actual bodily harm.
Last June Ali Toprak, 32, was stabbed to death outside the Crescent Club’s entrance, following a Turkish themed evening there. A 24-year-old man was stabbed in a mass brawl in January that had begun inside the club and then spilled out onto the street.
Professional footballer DJ Campbell, 28, was arrested on April 22 in connection to that stabbing. Mr Campbell, who is on loan to Championship side Blackpool from Leicester City, has been released on bail pending further inquiries.
Local residents came out in force to support the police review, with 97 of them making representations on the grounds of crime and disorder and public nuisance. The council’s environmental protection also presented evidence, saying that they had received 69 separate noise complaints about the club between April 2009 and February 2010.
Pieter JFG Van Dyck, of Avonmore Road, said: “I live locally with a small family and young kids and pass The Crescent daily. The Crescent has brought crime and disorder onto our streets and thereby put out residents at serious risk. Whilst the police application does not list drug dealing, we all know there has been plenty of it in the immediate vicinity of the Crescent.
Jacky Mortimer, who is disabled and lives near the bar, said: “While The Crescent was open it made our lives very difficult – we had trouble getting around when people blocked the pavements so we found it hard to push the wheelchair around. This was partly because of queues and partly from smokers congregating.
“We had also dire experiences of being unable to park anywhere nearby and had to push the chair a long way while it was raining heavily or snowing. This was even over Christmas. Our disabled bay was misused by patrons of the club.”
Passion Nights Ltd, the former licence holders, was wound-up by the Companies Court in February, meaning that the firm no longer legally exists.
The company initially clashed with residents in November 2008 when it planned to turn the venue into a lap-dancing club. This was refused by licensing sub-committee following more than 1,000 letters of objection and a petition signed by 250 residents, and then again in June 2009 when it applied to extend its opening hours.
MJP Properties is the freeholder of the property and owns the licence. The company has brought in a new bar operator and has re-opened under the name Roots and Kultured. The bar showcases art, poetry and sculpture and opened on April 27.
