Booze for Breakfast at the Breakfast Club?

We draw your attention to a license application by the Breakfast Club on Hoxton Square. The venue already has a license which permits alcohol sales only to diners having a meal. The Breakfast Club seeks permission to effectively become a bar by removing the condition that “Alcohol is only to be sold to customers eating or waiting to be seated to eat“.

This venue is in the middle of an oversaturated area, where noise and disturbance already carry on late into the night. In fact the venue is in the Shoreditch Special Policy area, which means the amendment should be rejected absent “exceptional circumstances”. We believe there are none.

The SCA has written to Hackney Licensing to express these concerns. We urge you to send your own representations (pro or con!) ahead of the deadline on 16 September (strictly enforced). Suggested text is below, but please use your own words if possible.  Please copy sca@shoreditchcommunity.com if you can.

Sincerely,
The Shoreditch Community Association

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SUGGESTED TEXT FOR HACKNEY LICENSING:

To: Hackney Licensing (licensing@hackney.gov.uk)
Re: The Breakfast Club, 2/4 Rufus Street, London N1 6PE

I write to object to this proposed amendment to for the following reasons:

– This venue is within the Shoreditch Special Policy Area, which means the license amendment should be automatically refused absent “exceptional circumstances”, which do not exist.

– There are many residential properties in the immediate vicinity of the venue

– The location of the venue is in the middle of a zone that is saturated beyond breaking point with late-night drinking and party venues, attracting hordes of booze tourists every weekend causing intolerable noise, anti-social behaviour, littering and fouling of the streets. The last thing the area needs is yet another alcohol-only venue. This venue will add to the cumulative impact and existing issues of noise and disorder.

– The venue is directly adjacent to several residential properties and could become a focal point for lingering crowds, presenting issues of safety to children and noise/disorder.

This license amendment provides no value to the neighbourhood, tearing at the fabric of attempts to build a long-term balanced future for Shoreditch.

I wish to be advised of the date for the Sub-Committee meeting.

[Name]
[Address]
(I do not consent to the release of any personally identifiable information.)