London’s party scene is facing ‘annihilation’ with more than 1,100 bars and clubs shutting in just three years and countless others hampered by curtailed drinking hours, threats from housing developers and rising costs.
Fears for the capital’s nightlife are mounting among venue owners, despite London mayor Sadiq Khan’s ‘night czar’ Amy Lamé being paid £117,000 a year.
She is facing fresh scrutiny for jetting around the world despite the onslaught of places forced to close down amid post-Covid struggles and many more pressures.
Studies suggest almost a third of nightclubs have vanished across the country between March 2020 – the month the first Covid-19 pandemic lockdown was declared – and last December.
Some 31 per cent of all venues closed during that period, according to the Night Time Industries Association.
London’s ‘night czar’ Amy Lamé, pictured here with the capital’s mayor Sadiq Khan, has been criticised for her ‘globe-trotting’ while many of the city’s pubs and clubs are closing
Printworks in Surrey Quays is among the major London nightclubs to have closed its doors
Managers of Printworks London in Surrey Quays said the electronic music venue would close ‘for a number of years’ in 2023 – though it could yet reopen in 2026
And separate research has suggested London has been hit worse than anywhere else in England for pub closures with 46 venues going in just six months, according to real estate analysts Altus Group last October.
The NTIA says across the country there were 10 nightclub closures per month last year, equivalent to two each week.
Famed London venues which have shut their doors in recent years include Printworks in Rotherhithe, Space 289 in Bethnal Green and Werkhaus in Brick Lane.
Founder Jeremy Joseph announced last December he was ‘indefinitely’ closing G-A-Y Late in Soho, blaming a rise in attacks on customers and staff as well as nearby building works.
He said the redevelopments springing up next to his venue were causing safety issue by potentially blocking the main entrance and fire exits.
Other Soho venues which have closed in recent years include The Borderline, which previously hosted gigs by major names such as Amy Winehouse, Blur, Oasis, REM, PJ Harvey, Blondie and Sheryl Crow.
Owners DHP Family said at the time: ‘With ever increasing rents, rising business rates and ongoing redevelopment plans for Soho, we’ve taken the decision to close the venue by 31 August 2019.’
Oval Space in east London’s Cambridge Heath shut as a nightclub in September 2022 following a shooting, though has since reopened as a studio space.
South London losses include Club 414 in Brixton, Ghost Notes in Peckham, the Coronet in Elephant and Castle and the Montague Arms in Lewisham.
Southwark Council announced in 2022 that iconic Surrey Quays venue Printworks, which held up to 6,000 partygoers and featured internationally renowned DJs such as Peggy Gou, would be closing its doors to make way for more office space.
The popular electronic music club, once home to the printing press for the London Evening Standard, later confirmed its closure in 2023 ‘for a number of years’.
Yet it has since suggested a potential return in 2026, though other venues across the capital are struggling to keep complaints from NIMBYs under control.
Many pubs have been targeted by neighbours moaning about noise, including the 200-year-old Compton Arms in Islington, north London.
This was threatened after four new neighbours who moved into the area during lockdown complained revellers were too loud and that it was a danger to health – while also raising particular concerns about Arsenal fans congregating there.
The Compton Arms, which inspired an essay by George Orwell on the perfect boozer, faced having its licence revoked by Islington Council – before a ruling in the pub’s favour, although restricting outdoor drinking hours to 10pm at the latest.
Major pub chains have, however, been announcing widespread closures.
Wetherspoons said it in 2022 it would be shutting down 32 venues, including 14 in London, while last year Revolution Bars said it would be closing eight.
And Rekom UK revealed it was getting rid of 17 of its 35 nightclubs, including those bearing the brand names Pryzm and Attik.
Factors which have been blamed include the ongoing energy crisis, high inflation rate and spooked markets.
Across London, venues are being threatened with closure to make way for housing and commercial properties.
More than 20 venues across London have been threatened with noise complaints from angry neighbours since the start of 2022
The Compton Arms in Islington, north London, a 200-year-old iconic pub that inspired an Orwellian essay on the perfect boozer, faced complaints from four neighbours
Printworks, owned by Broadwick Live, published a statement on Twitter regarding its future
An empty dance floor at Printworks London, once the printing press for the Evening Standard
The renowned George Tavern, in Stepney, where Amy Winehouse used to play and Kate Moss would visit, successfully overcame a battle with a housing firm wanting to build more than 200 flats adjacent to the venue in the disused Stepney’s Nightclub.
Landlady Pauline Forster, 74, who has owned and run the pub for 21 years, told told MailOnline: ‘You’re up against it all the time – we’re a grass roots music venue helping local acts to get off the ground, but that means the licence costs more and more.
‘Our electricity bills have gone up 300 per cent to £40,000 a year and we’re paying 20 per cent more on the alcohol we serve – we’re a cash cow for the government.
‘Then there are always developers threatening to build here, on the edge of the City of London, which I’m always having to battle against.
‘We do fear for the future – but I will always keep fighting for this place. Youngsters keep on coming – they love the beauty of the building, the atmosphere, the history. We do a good job for the local community.’
Other acts to perform at the venue include Fleabag creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Florence and the Machine and BBC Sound of 2024 winners The Last Dinner Party.
Meanwhile, The Jago arts and cultures venue – dubbed ‘the beating heart of Hackney’ – has seen a rise in noise complaints since the country emerged from lockdowns and faces having to reduce its trading hours.
General manager Kwame Otiende, who began running the venue in 2018, previously told MailOnline: ‘Before the pandemic, we never had any noise complaints.
‘These noise complaints all started after the pandemic so it’s quite clear that a lot of people that used to live in Hackney moved away, because a lot of them worked in the creative industry.
‘Then we had a whole new set of people move in because they heard that Hackney is cool and hip but they had did not realise what it means to live in an area of culture.’
Mr Otiende believes that most of the noise complaints being handed to his venue, as well as neighbouring venues such as The Haggerston jazz pub, are all coming from a single home where the residents moved in during lockdown.
The music venue was previously threatened with closure as developers wanted to turn it into a residential block but Hackney Council put a stop to the plans making it an asset of community value.
Pauline Forster, landlady of Stepney Green’s The George Tavern, told MailOnline today have venue owners are ‘up against it all the time’ amid rising costs and developers’ threats
The George Tavern, in Stepney, successfully overcame a battle with a housing company that wanted to build more than 200 flats adjacent to the venue in the disused Stepney’s Nightclub
Kwame Otiende, general manager of the Jago in Dalston, said the venue saw a rise in noise complaints since the country emerged from Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns
The Jago arts and cultures venue, known as ‘the beating heart of Hackney’, faced having to reduce its trading hours
The Jago created an online petition to save itself and other venues in Hackney from the ‘rising noise complaints’ the area has been getting in recent years
London pubs hit with noise concerns:
- The Duke’s Head, in Highgate, pledged to work with neighbours following noise complaints
- The Gatehouse, in Highgate, had plans to extend its venue approved despite concerns
- The Crown, in Bromley, addressed fears that the beer garden would be too loud
- King William IV in Hampstead faces a licence review
- Kiss the Sky in Crouch End lost its licence over noise complaints, antisocial behaviour and operating beyond permitted hours
- The Courtyard shisha bar in Woolwich was fined £2,046 for late-night noise disturbances
- The Jago, Dalston, has started a petition to protect it from having to reduce its trading hours because of noise complaints
- The Macbeth on Hoxton Street avoided a suspension of its licence following noise complaints and ‘poor management’ concerns
- The Broadway in Muswell Hill faced objections over noise when trying to relax its licence
- Those living near Betty’s in Chiswick expressed concern over later closing times on Friday and Saturday night
- The Compton Arms in Islington is facing a licence review after four neighbours complained of loud noise
- The Sultan in South Wimbledon had a review of the licence after neighbours said its new pub benches were a nuisance
- The George Tavern in Stepney successfully overcame plans for new flats adjacent to its venue, that it feared would lead to more noise complaints
- The Dove, in Chingford, sparked fury after asking to extend its licence to 1am
A number of pubs across London have been threatened with noise-related closures
He added: ‘It’s not that we don’t care about anyone that says they can hear noise because the people that come to our venues live in this borough and we do care that our operations don’t affect our community.
‘But at the same time, these noise complaints are a stereotypical case of someone moving next to a church and complaining about church bells.
‘If you move to Hackney, you know it’s an inner city borough and that there will be some level of noise, whether that’s passing traffic or people on the high street.’
The venue created a petition to protect The Jago and other venues in Hackney such as the Haggerston Pub, against the ‘rising number of noise complaints’.
One social media user who shared the campaign said: ‘The plight of London: people who move into areas with cultural character and/or value, attracted by their unique reference points – then turning around and shoving them into the ground’.
Meanwhile, other Islington pubs near the Compton Arms shared concerns they too could be at risk.
Maria Roche, 61, running The Jolly Sisters pub in Islington, said that her pub had even received noise complaints from those living nearby because her ‘cooler was making noise’ even though ‘it wasn’t over any noise limit’.
She said: ‘It is a massive problem. People think they have a right to silence in their home and it creates big problems for local pubs.
‘People have been drinking outside in the hot weather and every time someone raises their voice, my heart goes into my stomach. You can’t run a pub now in the way you used to years ago.’
The trade body UK Hospitality has predicted more than 10,000 pubs and restaurants could close due to a ‘perfect storm’ of inflation, energy costs and rising rents.
Since the beginning of 2022, noise complaints have hit more than 20 bars and pubs across Greater London – with even some late-night takeaways getting slammed for their noise levels.
The King William IV in Hampstead handed a petition with almost 500 signatures to Camden after it was threatened with a licence review over noise complaints from neighbours being disturbed when people leave the venue.
The landlord Jimmy McGrath said the issue was not the pubs fault and it had previously taken action to resolve the issue by hiring a bouncer and making musicians play with acoustic instruments rather than through amplifiers.
Pub manager Marija Skauminaite, who has worked at the venue for seven years, told the Camden New Journal: ‘I just think it’s ridiculous. We have been here for six or seven years and literally nothing has changed in all these years.
The George Tavern’s landlady Pauline Forster, who has run the pub in Stepney Green for the last 21 years, told of electricity bills going up by 300 per cent to £40,000 a year
Matt Porter, manager of Simmons Bar in Soho, has told of the venue getting noise complaints ‘all the time’ from the ‘older generation’ saying it is ‘too loud’
Londoners have taken to social media to protect their beloved boozers and music venues
Luke Robert Black, deputy chair of LGBT+ Conservatives, said he looked at ‘the decline of London’s hospitality and nightlife sector with despair’
‘The music has been the same, the opening hours have been the same and suddenly there has been a few complaints and they are trying to affect what is a big part of Hamstead High Street.’
Across the river in South Wimbledon, The Sultan pub had its license reviewed after a letter signed by 12 neighbours said the pub, which had six new picnic tables outside, was having a ‘negative impact on the area’.
More than 30 regulars of the pub wrote back letters of support defending the local.
UKHospitality CEO Katie Nicholls said at the time: ‘The sector is tightly regulated when it comes to noise levels and UKHospitality is a supporter of the ‘agent of change principle’ – where developers building new accommodation near long-standing licensed premises have a duty to mitigate noise in their plans, rather than existing premises being penalised.
‘The vast majority of the UK’s much-loved pubs are well-run premises at the heart of the communities they serve. With this in mind, noise issues, where they exist, should be resolved in the first instance by constructive dialogue between the parties.
‘Given current pressures on the already fragile sector, which faces soaring costs and staff shortages, we’d urge for a partnership approach to resolving any issues rather than resorting to costly and time-consuming licensing reviews.’
MailOnline has contacted the London mayor’s office for comment from Amy Lamé.
