The new force ruining London’s nightlife

‘It’s sad one new member of the community is now trying to close the club down’

Morning — the return of London’s bars, pubs and clubs after lockdown was meant to be a fresh start. Except, they now had new neighbours.

Today we’re very excited at Spy HQ to bring you our second reader-funded piece, an investigation by journalist Nic Murray into the changing way London’s councils are policing nightlife over noise. Nic’s got his hands on internal records from across the capital’s town halls that show a staggering rise in noise complaints in the past few years. In many cases, it’s in unexpected parts of London — one explanation being it’s where people moved to during the pandemic, when things were quieter. But what’s more surprising is the response from boroughs — Nic’s found that previously obscure, little-used legal tactics are now being deployed on the reg. For venues, it means big bills, the risk of closure and potential prosecution in court. Nic has uncovered one particularly mad example, where just one person triggered an avalanche of legal pain for a venue, despite the rest of the community’s support. That’s down below.

Thanks again to everyone who’s been signing up to support the Spy with a paid subscription over the past couple days — it makes in-depth, quality reporting like Nic’s possible. His article is only readable in full to our paid subscribers, but we’ve got a good few preview paragraphs if you’re one of our free readers, so you can see what you think. You can also sign up for a 7-day free trial using the button on the paywall if you want to give the whole thing a read but aren’t sure about committing just yet.

But before that, four quick things:

• Dressed in an all-green, linen suit from Percival, Sadiq Khan celebrated the start of his third term as London mayor on Monday. Khan posed for photos on the Millenium Bridge with his wife, Saadiya, before delivering a speech outlining his priorities for the next four years. Climate and environmental action was the big theme — plus a joke at Britain First’s expense. Meanwhile, more Tories have been blaming the ‘negativity’ of Susan Hall’s campaign for her defeat. Yesterday she posted her first video message since the result was announced on Saturday.

• Three people have now been charged following a protest in Peckham to stop a coach taking a group of asylum seekers to the Bibby Stockholm barge. They were among the 45 arrested at the protest last Thursday, which saw people sit in the road to block the coach, followed by clashes with police. The coach left after seven hours without the asylum seekers on board.

• Campaigners are criticising a decision to cut down 22 trees in Brockwell Park. Lambeth council says the trees are dead or dying and need to be felled to stop them falling on people, but south London locals argue the work is being rushed through ahead of the summer’s festival season.

• Renowned Texan arts festival South by Southwest is coming to London. SXSW organisers say they’ve pencilled in June 2025 for a London edition, which would be hosted across Shoreditch.

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As noise complaints surge, London councils turn to new tactics

By Nic Murray

“It has a rich history and is an integral part of life for locals. [It] is sad one new member of the community is now trying to close it down,” reads one of the most recent Google reviews for Maxilla Social Club in Notting Hill. Standing 200 metres from the Grenfell Tower, for the last 30 years Maxilla has acted as an important and affordable hub for many of the neighbourhood’s residents to come together. 

“It’s for everyone in the community,” Joe Walsh, who runs the venue, tells me. He reels off a packed schedule when I ask about a typical week at the venue: “Friday night we’ve got reggae night, Saturday was a christening, Sunday was Brazilian dance, Monday is band practice, Tuesday and Wednesday is a Nine-night, Thursday there’s a funeral and there’s a memorial service on Friday”. And as prices surge in Notting Hill and the rest of London, Joe says he’s committed to keeping things cheap at the club: “This is a pricy area now, but if you want a brandy and coke we’re charging four pounds. As long as we can pay the bills and I can pay my staff I don’t give a shit.”

One of Maxilla’s neighbours isn’t so relaxed. For the last eight years, Maxilla has hosted a Brazilian steel drum band on Mondays, who practice at the club between 7pm and 9.30pm. But in May last year, after repeated complaints from a new resident to the area, the local council issued the venue with an ultimatum. The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC) began a legal process that could, in the extreme, have seen Joe prosecuted in court if he didn’t deal with the noise. But rather than cancel band practice, Joe decided to hold his ground. He dipped into his pension to help fund £18,000 in soundproofing measures for Maxilla, upgrading windows and doors. “It’s a matter of principle, I’m not getting rid of 23 players for one man,” he explains. Joe also had to seek legal advice on his case and call in favours from acoustic experts from neighbouring boroughs to assess its noise levels.

Hundreds of emails in support of Maxilla, as well as a petition which has garnered around 2,500 signatures, have been sent to RBKC. But to date, Joe says he has received no help or support from the borough council to resolve these complaints and move forward. “I said ‘you’ve done nothing for me’, and they said ‘We didn't take you to court,’” recounts Joe of his last communication with the council. 

It’s too expensive, there’s too little of it and it ends too soon are now among the most common complaints made by punters about London’s nightlife. But for the purveyors of bars, pubs and clubs in the capital, a new threat has emerged in recent years, one that has grown since the pandemic and risks shutting them down entirely. It’s a different complaint that comes from a committed and vocal minority – it’s too noisy. 

Internal data from London boroughs shows just how much noise complaints have ballooned. Responses by 22 councils to Freedom of Information requests I sent to all 32 across London reveal that the number of noise complaints made against licensed premises has been increasing year on year since 2018, reaching a high of 4,145 in 2022/23. This trend accelerated following the pandemic, with the largest increase in complaints coming in the first full year licensed premises were allowed to remain open, where it rose by 28%.