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By RICHARD OSLEY
 

The Assembly House
New protests over pub live music plan

Fears of sleepless nights if gastropub's licence granted

A GASTROPUB is facing a second battle with its neighbours after revealing plans to stage music in an upstairs function room.
The Assembly House in Kentish Town Road caused panic among nearby residents in November when it tried to win approval for a 2am weekend licence. The application was turned down by councillors after warnings that the new deal would lead to late night disruption.
Now, the pub – one of the oldest in Camden – has provoked more protests with plans to refurbish a first-floor room for use as a second bar and live music.
Writer and historian Gillian Tindall, who lives in nearby Leighton Road, said: “The potential for noise nuisance emanating from the upper floor room is, if anything, greater than that from an ground floor room. Given the pub’s status as a Grade-II listed building, both internally and externally, it is hard to see how soundproofing could be effectively installed.”
She added: “It is not at all clear how often the additional room would be used. If it is intended to hire it out only for occasional events that is one thing, but if it were to become a regular music venue this would have highly undesirable implications for the general peace, public order, safety and cleanliness of the neighbourhood. There is strenuous local resistance against its being turned into the sort of venue which attracts the kind of crowds that go to the Forum on the far side of Highgate Road.”
Many of the objectors are among the group of protesters who convinced licensing chiefs to pull the plug on the pub’s plans for a late licence last year.
Guy Culshaw, whose home is closest to the pub, said: “This is the fourth time we have had to respond to an application from the Assembly House – enough is enough.
“We have experience of when the Assembly House has played amplified music on previous occasions. My wife and I complained to the Camden Council Noise Prevention Team on two separate occasions.
“On one occasion the team couldn’t believe we had telephoned from within our own house. The noise was so loud they thought we had telephoned from inside the Assembly House.”
He added: “We have two sons are under the age of four who need to sleep during the day as well as during the evening. Having DJs playing next door will disrupt their sleeping patterns as well as ours.”
Camden Council’s own environmental health department has also raised concerns and has asked managers to explain how they will insulate the function room.
Bar manager Emily Corbett told a licensing hearing in November that she had turned the bar around, transforming a pub which once attracted rowdy football fans for live match screenings into a more civilised food-based bar.
She said: “We are not turning it into a nightclub or a music venue. We want people to come in and have some food and some drinks.”
The new application will be discussed and judged by councillors at a Town Hall meeting on Tuesday.
A statement from Greene King – the brewery which holds the bar’s licence – said: “The licence holder is to hold meetings with local residents. The licence holder is to provide and publish contact details of the manager to assist any local residents making a complaint and having any issues of concern resolved.”
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