The historic Borough Hall in west Greenwich has escaped having its licence suspended after its neighbours complained about noise.
Pat Slattery, a Labour councillor for Greenwich Park ward, had called for its licence to be suspended for three months after complaints about its customers disturbing neighbours when leaving the building, as well as noise from loading and unloading after events.
Neighbours said they had been threatened by people attending events at the venue and that noise from there was blighting their lives.
Greenwich Council controversially sold the venue for just £2.4 million to a developer, Lita Homes, nearly two years ago after the collapse of plans to turn it into a theatre. The art deco building on Royal Hill, once part of the old Greenwich Town Hall, had been left unused since the now-closed Greenwich Dance moved out in 2018.
In January, another company, Eden Group Operations, won a licence until 11pm on most nights, and 12.30am on Saturdays.
Slattery had called for the venue’s licence to be cut back to 9pm, and extended to 11pm on only two Saturdays each month.
But a licensing review sub-committee, which met last week, decided to trim half an hour off its Saturday licensing hours, meaning events must end at midnight and the building must close at 12.30am.
A new noise management plan will also have to be put in place by February with hourly checks to monitor sound levels, with a noise limiter fitted, and equipment must not be loaded or unloaded after 10pm. A parking marshal should also be employed.
Slattery told the review meeting that she and her fellow councillor, Aidan Smith, had brought the review because of a “public nuisance on a significant scale”.
She said that while she recognised that Eden Group had made improvements to the venue, its use of the building was not suitable for a residential area. While it had always been an entertainment venue, she said, it had originally operated when there were far fewer homes around it, and with fewer visitors coming by car.
“I share the council’s ambition to promote growth and employment, including from the night-time economy, but to safeguard the wellbeing of our residents,” she said. “That night-time economy has to be in the right place. The Borough Hall is not that place.”
Smith added: “The actual capacity is up to 1,200 people standing. How do you get 1,200 people to leave a venue quietly? You can’t, because people will naturally speak.”
One neighbour said that relations with Eden Group had broken down. “It’s the night-time noise, the public nuisance, the threats,” she said. “Enough’s enough really, and, and we’re disappointed that we are now nearly a year down the line, and Eden Events haven’t managed to comply with the terms of the licence.”
Another neighbour said he had begun making videos of the venue to document the issues with noise and customers’ parking, but found customers were videoing him back and shouting at him.
“We have a newborn baby who has been repeatedly woken up late at night by shouting, whistling and crowd noise,” he said.
“My wife has suffered significant mental stress caused by disruptive sleep anxiety around late night disturbance, and the feeling that our home environment is no longer calm. This directly affects our health, wellbeing and our child’s welfare.”
Gary Grant, the barrister representing Eden Group, called the review “remarkable”, and said that many of the residents who had spoken had opposed the original licence less than a year previously.
He said that 60 jobs would go if the licence was suspended because the venue would be unviable.
“The premises will go back to what it was before,” he said. “My clients invested half a million pounds to renovate the dilapidated premises, that was starting to go beyond repair and was the home of illegal squatting, crime and antisocial behaviour. That will be the direct result of imposing conditions that no longer permit my clients to run a financially viable business. “
Grant referred to a WhatsApp message that spoke of “chaos” in Peyton Place, a small street next to the venue. “My client went out, immediately took photographs and videos of Peyton Place,” he said. “Frankly, it was like a scene from a cowboy movie where tumbleweed is going through the street. Nothing is going on.
“So I have no doubt that there are lots of residents who live in Peyton Place who would prefer this venue would never open, and are aggrieved that it is open.”
Vince Middleton, a live-in guardian who lives in Meridian House next door – the other part of the old town hall complex, which is due to be turned into flats – said he had no problems with noise from the Borough Hall.
“It doesn’t impact me in the slightest, to be honest with you,” he said. “The small amount of noise is not that bad. It doesn’t stop me sleeping at night.
“I can’t see how anybody would not prefer the way it is now to how it was when we had illegal raves going on when it was squatted four years ago.”
But another resident said he had lived in the street for 37 years and had never had to deal with such disruption before.
Setting out their decision on Monday, Labour councillors Jit Ranabhat, Joshua Ayodele and Dominic Mbang said they rejected claims that the residents were against the venue and that the evidence in support of the licence “was of negligible value and could not be believed”.
“The offer of conditions by the licence holder, other than reduced hours, as sought by the review applicant, clearly indicated that there was public nuisance and disturbance within the vicinity and locality associated with Borough Hall,” they added.
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