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In a spectacular week for London's nightlife, not one but two popular venues have been saved.
Not only did Fabric get the green light to reopen, but late last night, Brent licensing committee ruled that live music venue The Good Ship can maintain its 3am late licence. Hooray! Similar to Fabric, the pub on Kilburn High Road was the subject of a review because the police raised safety concerns with the council.
The Good Ship's owner John McCooke explained to the committee last night how the pub makes most of its money late on a Friday and Saturday night. It meant that police recommendations for earlier last-entry times would hit takings hard and make the business unviable – ultimately forcing the live-music venue to close. The Good Ship agreed to take steps to make sure that pub-goers are kept safe, including the introduction of better CCTV, ID scanners and a new security team. Brent Council’s licensing committee then agreed with the pub that a last-entry time of 1.30am was necessary to help the business survive.
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McCooke said: 'Basically, we negotiated out all of the most unworkable measures, which was great. But we compromised on the opening and last-entry times. It ain't exactly what I was hoping for, but it's a lot better than it might have been. We now have a big job persuading locals to get to us by 1.30am, it was hard enough at 2am! But fair enough, we will have to do that. The main thing is that it is still just about viable.'
This news is another huge boost for London and hopefully marks a more harmonious relationship between venue owners, the police and licensing teams. Essentially we are the winners. So get out, form a band, fall in love with new sounds, throw a party and dive into a crowd.
Not only are venues staying open but new spaces have opened across London.