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Royal Exchange |
Bar owner sees the plug pulled on karaoke hopes
PLANS to open Camden Town’s first karaoke bar have been dashed by the Town Hall.
Adrian Hindson, owner of the Royal Exchange in Hartland Road, hoped to turn the mock-tudor style building into a members-only bar with private rooms.
He told councillors on Thursday he expected a mainly Asian clientele. Karaoke, singing along to a backing track with words projected on a screen, is popular in the east.
But councillors felt his application had not been properly prepared.
Mr Hindson’s solicitor, Mark Brown, told the licensing panel: “He’s installed an infra-red, state-of-the-art CCTV system on the advice of the police. This is not intended to be a rough pub.”
Mr Hindson was said to have spent thousands of pounds installing crystal chandeliers and a sound system “you’ve never ever seen in this country”.
But more than 10 people turned up at the Town Hall to protest against the bar bid. Bill Osborne, who lives next door, claimed the pub had a shameful history of rowdiness and drug dealing.
He said: “As far as I’m concerned the best thing that ever happened to this pub is when it burned down.”
The pub was damaged in a blaze two years ago, according to objectors.
Mr Osborne said: “If they turned it back into a nice little pub – we haven’t got one of those here – that would be lovely. But they’re trying to extend the nightlife from Camden Lock.”
Camden Town Labour councillor Pat Callaghan called the Royal Exchange a “royal nightmare”.
She said: “It’s a magnet for anti-social behaviour. It’s a very difficult area. Within 200 yards you have 3,500 people living here, including a high number of schoolchildren and people who are employed. It will exacerbate noise nuisance and anti-social behaviour.”
Rejecting the application, chairman of the licensing panel, Lib Dem councillor Jonathan Simpson, said that Mr Hindson had not spoken to his neighbours prior to the hearing.
He added: “The fact that it’s a members-only bar isn’t even on the application. It’s not been thought out enough.”
But Tory councillor Don Williams, who is in charge of the Town Hall’s overall licensing committee, supported the bid. He said: “Appropriate conditions could have been put forward on this application.”
Mr Brown criticised the decision after the hearing. He said Mr Hindson had bent over backwards to appease residents. “Nearly everything was offered,” he added. |
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