Westminster City Council has reduced the licensing hours of a five star hotel in Fitzrovia after receiving complaints about noise nuisance from the premises.
A review of the premises licence of The London Edition hotel, 10 Berners Street, was held on 17 September to consider an application submitted by a local resident on the grounds of the prevention of public nuisance late at night from the hotel’s basement function room.
Residents living near the hotel complained of noise nuisance from people entering and leaving the premises at a late hour, from customers smoking outside and from taxis and cars picking up or dropping off patrons.
The Licensee denied that a public nuisance was still being experienced by residents late at night saying it had taken measures to address this. It was stated that the music nights held in the basement had been discontinued at the end of June and there were now different uses of the function room.
However, the City Council’s licensing sub-committee agreed that public nuisance was caused by the dispersal of patrons from the basement function room late at night. In addition to attaching specific conditions, the committee reduced the terminal hours for licensable activities in the basement on a Sunday to 22:30, and from Monday to Thursday to midnight, and on Friday to Saturday to 01:00.
The hotel was previously allowed to sell alcohol and carry out other licensable activities until 01:00 seven days a week.
Residents were supported with their concerns by West End Ward Councillor Jonathan Glanz who said:
“After consulting with residents, it was clear that the level of nuisance felt by residents locally was not acceptable. I lobbied the committee meeting to oppose the license or impose suitable conditions.”