24-hour London in major decline
Plus: the Chris Kaba verdict and fallout, the battle over alfresco in Soho continues, and London’s lap dance war
Morning — many feel it, but definitively proving that London’s nightlife is under threat has been tricky. There was that recent attempt by the Times to map the number of venues open late in the capital, but some said the analysis didn’t hold up (“Why are so many people desperate to believe the capital's nightlife is dead?”). Well, just days ago, new stats have come out that offer a pretty concrete sense of how bad things have got. Evidence that 24-hour London is in major decline leads your roundup below.
Plus: the Chris Kaba verdict and fallout, the battle over alfresco in Soho continues, and London’s lap dance wars.
In case you missed it: what’s it really like filming in London? Yesterday we published a piece by film writer Gregory Wakeman, who’s been speaking with crew members on shows like Top Boy, Baby Reindeer and Ted Lasso.
What we've spied
😴 New figures suggest London's 24-hour scene is in major decline. On Thursday the Home Office released data that shows the number of pubs, bars and clubs holding a 24-hour alcohol licence in the capital has fallen by two thirds in two years — 183 in March 2022 to 58 in March 2024. Most of the fall in 24-hour venues was seen in Westminster, but there were notable falls in Lambeth and Greenwich too. Southwark was the only borough with a significant rise in 24-hour spots — from 4 to 31. And note: these Home Office figures are just for pubs, bars and clubs, and don’t include 24-hour offies, in case you were wondering. More restrictive licensing rules, residents’ noise complaints and high operating costs are being blamed for the overall fall and trend towards earlier closing times in London. The Home Office figures also revealed exactly how much some London councils are pocketing from their late night levies: £2.1m in the year to March 2024. Six boroughs have a levy in place, which is essentially a tax on venues serving alcohol between 12am and 6am to help councils pay for policing nightlife. Islington raised the most from its levy, £459,000, followed by Hackney, £450,407. Hackney’s late night levy was particularly controversial when it was introduced in 2017, with some claiming it would be “another nail in the coffin” for venues struggling with rising rents. At the time 52% of Hackney residents said they were in favour of the levy and 48% saying they were opposed.
🪩 While we’re on nightlife — several clubs have warned that extra strength ecstasy pills are currently in circulation in London, and may have led to several hospitalisations. Both Fold and Fabric are among the venues which have shared an alert from drugs charity the Loop, which tested pills earlier this month and in some cases found them to contain over 300mg of MDMA, which is more than double an adult dose. In a post on Instagram, Fabric wrote: “If in doubt, please don’t take it. Look after yourselves and each other”. In less bleak news: a new festival called LIDO has been announced for Victoria Park next year.
📣 Hundreds marched with the Justice for Chris Kaba campaign in central London on Saturday, following a week of intense debate about policing and race triggered by the acquittal of a firearms officer for Kaba’s murder. Activists gathered at Trafalgar Square at midday for a protest organised by the United Families and Friends Campaign, which represents the families of those who have died in the custody of police or the state. They then marched to Downing Street, where a group that included a relative of Kaba delivered a letter addressed to Keir Starmer.
On Monday a jury had found firearms officer Martyn Blake not guilty of the murder of Kaba, a 24-year-old black man who Blake shot in the head during a police vehicle stop in September 2022. The moment was captured on dash and body cam footage released after the trial. Kaba was being followed by police at the time because he was driving an Audi linked to a shooting the night before. He was later found to have been unarmed. Blake’s lawyers argued in court that he had made a split second decision to shoot Kaba in order to protect himself and his colleagues, after Kaba tried to ram free of the police block. The not guilty verdict was met with a protest outside the Old Bailey on Monday night, where Kaba’s family said it was “painful proof that our lives are not valued by the system”.
The following morning reporting restrictions on Kaba’s past were lifted by a judge. This allowed the media to report that Kaba had been a core member of the 67 gang, based around Brixton Hill, and that Kaba had been pictured on CCTV shooting a man at a Hackney nightclub days before his death. Blake did not know about Kaba’s past at the time of the shooting or that it was Kaba driving the vehicle, so a judge decided to withhold the information from the jury.
Key developments over the next few days included:
Met commissioner Sir Mark Rowley calling for armed police to be made exempt from criminal charges for shootings unless prosecutors can prove they departed from training. Rowley also described the police accountability system as “broken” and said he feared a loss of morale amongst firearms officers.
Home secretary Yvette Cooper announcing that in future firearms officers facing trial will be granted anonymity unless they are convicted, amid reports an underworld bounty had been placed on Blake.
Black community leaders saying the Kaba case and its fallout had left some feeling “traumatised” and that they had been denied justice, and that focusing on Kaba’s criminal history was “not helpful at this moment”.
Conservative leadership contender Robert Jenrick saying London “is a safer place” without Kaba and that he wants to raise the threshold for prosecuting firearms officers.
Reports that firearms officers from outside London are refusing to step in and assist the Met if asked due to the Kaba case.
Blake has now been reinstated to the Met in the wake of his acquittal, but he may still face gross misconduct proceedings brought by the Independent Office for Police Conduct.
🚓 A few last things on policing and crime in London this week: a whistleblower at HMP Wandsworth has leaked prison officer WhatsApp messages to the Times, which show staff celebrating an inmate’s suicide; police have re-opened their investigation into the Wimbledon school crash; a member of an east London gang who kidnapped a schoolboy is among those who’ve been released early from prison as part of the government’s scheme to tackle overcrowding; and a black youth worker who was Tasered by City of London police has won his appeal for damages.
💰 Rachel Reeves delivers her first Budget this Wednesday, and London's leaders have been busy sending letters to the Chancellor asking for cash for the capital. First is Sadiq Khan, who's asked for at least £250m in funding for TfL next year. Critics have pointed out that figure is half what Khan had asked for only last year under the previous Conservative government. But, according to Khan, Reeves has been forced to “make ends meet”. Perhaps some frank and honest words were recently shared behind closed doors, because only this July it was reported Khan was going to ask for £500m again, which at the time was seen as enough to progress big projects like the DLR extension. The second big money ask comes from London borough councils, who this week issued an "emergency" warning over the scale of the city's homelessness crisis. The umbrella organisation representing the boroughs said they were spending £4m a day on temporary accommodation, amid record levels of homelessness, and have called on Reeves to provide extra cash. While we're on homelessness: a makeshift camp on Park Lane near Hyde Park was dismantled by Westminster council and TfL this week.
💸 The latest London Living Wage has been announced: £13.85 an hour, up 70p or 5.3% on the previous rate. Around 140,000 workers in London will get this pay rise because their employers have signed up to the voluntary scheme, which pays a higher figure than the UK’s minimum wage to reflect the extra cost of living in the capital. But around 500,000 workers in London are paid less than the Living Wage, according to research published by the foundation that calculates it. Veteran Spy readers may remember our investigation from this time last year, which revealed several high profile London employers had quietly dropped their Living Wage accreditation, such Sotheby’s, Camden Hells and the Royal Society of Arts. They’re all still absent from the official list of accredited employers. It also appears three London borough councils still haven’t signed up to the scheme: Bexley, Bromley and Hillingdon.
🚲 Twelve survivors of an e-bike fire in east London are taking legal action against their landlords and the battery manufacturer. The group were among 20 men living in a two-bedroom flat in Shadwell when, on March 5, 2023, a faulty e-bike battery exploded and set the building ablaze. One man died in the fire. The 12 are now suing their landlords, Sofina Begum and Aminur Rahman, and the battery manufacturer, Leon Cycle Ltd, for negligence. Begum and Rahman already pleaded guilty to nine criminal charges over the incident last November. The London Fire Brigade has repeatedly warned of the dangers of faulty e-bike batteries and urged Londoners to check theirs — just this week, a flat block in Plaistow caught fire after a lithium battery failed.
🍽️ The battle over alfresco dining in Soho continues — local businesses have now called on Sadiq Khan to include the neighbourhood in his Oxford Street pedestrianisation plans. This week the Soho Business Alliance (SBA) wrote to Khan asking that he include Soho in the Mayoral Development Corporation that he’s setting up to take direct control of development between Marble Arch and Oxford Circus. The SBA argue that Soho has, like Oxford Street, suffered from neglect and could be revitalised with a mix of pedestrianised or low traffic areas. A spokesperson for Khan’s office tells the BBC proposals are still being finalised — but Westminster council already seems to be against the idea. One of its cabinet members, Paul Dimoldenberg, suggested more businesses and residents would be against such a “mayoral takeover” of Soho. For more Soho drama, there’s our recent big read on how alfresco became the neighbourhood’s ‘dirty word’.
📱 As phone thefts in London continue their quite alarming rise, Google has announced it’s made some software for Android that uses sensors to detect when a phone is being snatched. It’s a potential new layer of protection from thieves’ particularly grim tactic of stealing phones to log into people’s finance apps and draining their accounts. When triggered, the software — named “Theft Detection Lock” — locks the phone so that thieves are locked out of personal apps. Another new feature lets users hide certain sensitive apps behind an additional PIN. It comes as phone thefts have risen by 50% in some boroughs, with hotspots in Westminster and Camden. Sadiq Khan, who previously called on tech companies to “design out” phone theft, has made a statement in support of the new feature. The Spy can’t see anything similar for iPhone users yet.
🚇 TfL has said it will be restoring applications for free travel passes “shortly”, as the transport authority finally recovers some of its systems that keeled over during the recent cyber attack. On Thursday afternoon a TfL spokesperson told the Standard that it will soon be allowing applications for new Zip cards and 60+ Oyster cards, which have been paused since the hack. In the meantime, the spokesperson said children and teenagers in possession with an expired Zip card will be able to use them until the end of the year. This week will mark two months since the TfL cyber attack, which has reportedly caused chaos internally. More London transport: TfL and several borough councils have been working to ease restrictions on e-scooter rentals in a bid to make the market more competitive and reduce injuries when scooters suddenly stop in geofenced areas.
⚽ Arsenal is reportedly considering expanding its north London stadium, in an attempt to catch up to rivals on match-day income. The 60,000-capacity Emirates Stadium was the biggest in London when Arsenal moved from Highbury in 2006, but it’s since been surpassed by Tottenham Hotspur’s 62,850-capacity stadium that opened in 2019 as well as by West Ham’s move to the 62,500-capacity London Stadium in 2016. In addition West Ham recently announced it was seeking to expand its capacity to 68,000, while Chelsea has been mulling the idea of a new stadium.
🥧 Calls to grant special protected status to a classic Cockney dish, pie ‘n’ mash, are gaining traction. On Tuesday MPs held a debate about giving the dish Traditional Speciality Guaranteed status, a legal classification already given to the likes of Scottish salmon and Welsh lamb that protects against falsification and misuse. Basildon and Billericay MP Richard Holden led the debate — and an environmental minister in attendance, Daniel Zeichner, seemed receptive to the idea, telling Holden he’d welcome a “formal application”. It’s sadly too little too late for Harringtons Eel and Pie House, a 116-year-old shop in Tooting that this week announced it’s closing down.
🔍 And finally, we leave you with:
London's lap dance wars (The Upsetter £)
Jas Athwal claims he was cleared of sexual assault. Was he? (Novara Media)
Love bombing Angus Steakhouse to protect genuine London gems (Thrillist)
Confirmation the Real Housewives is getting a London spinoff (Sun)
POV it’s 1986 and you’re an investment banker in London (TikTok)
Those are not leaves (Reddit)
Canary Wharf > New York (TikTok)
Tinnies on the Overground (TikTok)
PSA about fungi in Epping Forest (TikTok)