'We were duped': How a rogue bouncer nearly shut Heaven
Plus: Sir Sadiq, contactless refunds, and Londoner rage bait
Morning — Jeremy Joseph, the owner of Heaven, looked visibly nervous during Friday’s make-or-break meeting for his nightclub. He could be seen on the livestream biting his nails, as his solicitor to his side tried to reassure Westminster councillors the club had learned the lessons from an alleged rape involving its bouncer. In the end, the council decided to give the venue another chance — but at a price. How Heaven narrowly avoided closure is after your round-up below.
Plus: Sir Sadiq, the return of contactless refunds, and Londoner rage bait.
NEW — From our readers: We’ve had some great messages in our inbox from readers over the past few weeks that we thought were worth sharing. So we’ve included a few in a new section, From our readers, at the end of the email.
We’d love to do this on a semi-regular basis, like the letters pages of local papers of old. So if you have some London thoughts you want to share with our 7,000+ Spy readers in a future issue, drop us a line at londonspy@substack.com.
What we've spied
🚨 An Elizabeth line worker has died after being attacked at Ilford station in east London. 61-year-old Jorge Ortega, a customer experience assistant, was taken to hospital with serious head injuries after the attack on Wednesday evening. He died two days later on Friday. His son issued a statement through the British Transport Police on Saturday that said: “Our dad was the most loving person, the kindest soul you could have the pleasure of meeting. Everyone who has met our dad or who has ever worked with him over the years will tell you this”. Prime minister Keir Starmer described Ortega’s death as “absolutely tragic” in a post on X: “Nobody should have to face any violence at work — and certainly not something as shocking as this”. The British Transport Police said 28-year-old Ayodele Jamgbadi of Kingston Road in Ilford has been charged with grievous bodily harm, affray and possession of a prohibited offensive weapon in a private place in connection with the incident. The force added that its detectives will make an application to amend the indictment to reflect the victim’s death.
🏗️ PLANNING CORNER 🏗️ This week Marks & Spencer was granted permission to demolish its flagship Oxford Street store so it can build a new nine-storey mixed retail and office space. The retailer's plans had been in planning purgatory for four years, but on Thursday deputy PM and local government secretary Angela Rayner ruled the scheme could go ahead. M&S had previously been blocked by Rayner's predecessor, Michael Gove, over concerns the demolition of the art deco building, which originally opened in 1930, would harm other heritage landmarks in central London, like the nearby Selfridges department store building. M&S welcomed Rayner's ruling, as did the likes of the London Property Alliance, which represents developers in the capital. "I hope with this decision we can finally end the uncertainty which has acted as a drag on investment, damaging growth and the jobs that go with it," said LPA chief exec Charles Begley.
Elsewhere in planning: the City of London Corporation has approved a £191m funding package to repair and upgrade the Barbican Centre; plans for a 36-storey tower block near the Walkie-Talkie have been approved, despite concerns it will impact the view of the Tower of London; and a four-bedroom home in Crystal Palace has been named House of the Year by the Royal Institute of British Architects.
🍻 A pub in Clerkenwell has been getting national press attention, after it was reported its wealthy neighbours are trying to shut it down over noise. Charles Dickens is thought to have frequented The Sekforde, a 200-year-old pub in EC1R, but current punters include "women talking at the top of their voices and shrieking sitting at the illegal tables". That at least is according to those living next door, who've complained enough about noise to Islington council that they've triggered a license review. Landlord Harry Smith fears any restrictions could spell the end for the pub, which donates its profits to the Sekforde House Trust, which in turn funds scholarships to London universities. As the Daily Mail points out, many of the homes nearby are valued at £2m, which hasn't exactly garnered much sympathy. Commentator Aaron Bastani was among those weighing in — he said: "If you move next to a pub, and then complain about the noise, and try and get said pub to close, you deserve to be sent to a re-education camp in the outer Hebrides for several months".
🚗 A man accused of blowing up a ULEZ camera in outer London will have to wait over a year before having his day in court. In November, 62-year-old Kevin Rees, from Sidcup, was charged with causing an explosion likely to endanger life or cause serious injury to property, as well as three counts of possessing a prohibition weapon. It follows an investigation by the Met Police into an incident last December where a camera used to enforce London's ultra-low emissions zone (ULEZ) in Sidcup exploded, with the moment captured on CCTV. ULEZ had expanded to the area that summer, amid fierce opposition from drivers in outer London. Rees has been absent from some of his initial scheduled court appearances due to medical reasons, but on Friday a judge set April 11, 2025 as the date for a plea hearing, then January 5, 2026 as the provisional trial date. You can read our initial report on the ULEZ explosion in the Spy archives here. Meanwhile, also on Friday, the so-called 'Tooting Four' — a group of anti-ULEZ activists who protested outside Sadiq Khan's home this April — were found guilty of harassment. Alison Young, Martin Whitehead, Nick Arlett and Lloyd Dunsford had been part of a group of 100 protesters who gathered 100 metres from Khan's home in Tooting for an event titled “Khanage at Khan's”, where they played amplified music and chanted "offensive language". The four say they plan to appeal the guilty verdict.
⚔️ Speaking of the mayor: Sadiq Khan is going to be knighted, according to the Financial Times. The paper says it's been told by Whitehall insiders that the mayor will be in the upcoming New Year honours list in recognition of his nearly two decades of political and public service. Khan has been mayor for over eight years now, and was previously MP for Tooting for eleven years. The prospect of Sir Sadiq has brought both admirers and haters out of the woodwork. Veteran Evening Standard reporter Ross Lydall says the mayor deserves a knighthood, writing: "I’ve had the privilege of knowing all three London mayors. Ken Livingstone was the visionary, the blue-sky thinker. Boris Johnson the entertainer, the front-page calamity waiting to happen. Mr Khan is by some distance the most conscientious: he’s always done his homework, mastered his brief, knows exactly what he wants to say". On the other hand, the Telegraph summarises the case against Sir Sadiq with a piece headlined: 'Five charts that show how Sadiq Khan has ruined London', with data on crime and taxes.
👮 The staff association that represents Met Police officers has published a survey that asked members about Notting Hill Carnival — but the findings are heavily contested by the carnival's organisers. According to the Metropolitan Police Federation (MPF), which represents 30,000 rank-and-file officers, the vast majority of its members felt unsafe working at the event. The MPF report, which was handed to senior figures at Scotland Yard and City Hall on Monday, is plastered with quotes from the 486 officers who participated in the survey. "Utter lawleness... We are practically powerless to police this event... It's a war zone we are sent into year after year," is one example. However, the event’s organiser, Notting Hill Carnival, has described the survey as "hugely flawed" because it returned the views of "at best just 7% of potential officers on duty". This year's carnival in August saw 350 reports of violent or sexual offences, and 61 attacks on officers, according to the Met Police.
🐶 Two dog attacks took place across London this week — this first leading to the death of a 42-year-old man. A 32-year-old woman has been charged after officers were called to Shirley Road in Stratford in the early hours of Wednesday morning, where the man was found seriously injured. He was taken to hospital where he died. The second involved a dog chasing then killing a a deer in Richmond Park, with footage of the incident posted online. The Met Police says it is still searching for the owner of the dog.
🗺️ FROM THE BOROUGHS 🗺️ Residents of Kensington & Chelsea fear they're about to lose a local "symbol of hope" — a mural depicting Mary Poppins in a heart. The piece, painted by a resident on their rooftop wall in Earl's Court, has drawn the ire of the local council's planning committee, who view it as "graffiti". The resident, Patrick Spens, set up a petition to save the piece back in March of this year, but local democracy reporter Adrian Zorzut now reports the council have voted to take it down. In Lewisham, councillors have approved £25m in cuts, with one casualty being the borough mayor's personal driver. We reckon mayor Brenda Dacre will probably manage without a chauffeur, but the budget measures also include a £300,000 cut to Lewisham's youth services and a £217,000 to the local grants programme. Meanwhile, Greenwich councillors have quietly voted to sell off a local equestrian centre opened by Princess Anne, Tower Hamlets council has ordered the removal of Grenfell-style cladding from a building in Stepney Green, and Hackney council has backed controversial plans for an incinerator in Edmonton.
🚇 TfL has reinstated its contactless refund service, after it was taken offline following the cyber attack in September. You can access the service here, as well as check your journey history for the first time in three months. It after TfL re-launched applications for 18+ student and 60+ Oyster travelcards. Elsewhere in London transport: Sadiq Khan has said work to introduce driverless trains on the Underground "shouldn't be progressed any further"; polling has found the Elizabeth Line is the 'most liked' Tube line among Londoners; and old Overground signs that were taken down during the recent renaming have been put up for sale in the London Transport Museum shop.
🔍 And finally, we leave you with:
'Are Londoners really mean, or was it just our experience?'(TikTok)
Photos of London's festive lights from above (Guardian)
The best schools in London in 2025 (Times £)
A grandfather fighting off two muggers with a takeaway in west London (X)
Google Street View at Tube stations is now available (Time Out)
Netflix hosting a free Squid Game rave at Drumsheds in north London (DJ Mag)
Nostalgia for Sega World in the Tocadero in the 1990s (TikTok)
Ceechynaa braving the London weather for her new music video (YouTube, NSFW)
A futuristic depiction of London in the new Doctor Who trailer (X)
Reviewing this year's Trafalgar Square Christmas tree (Standard)
'Closing Tower Bridge so the riff raff south Londoners can't enter the main city' (TikTok)
In defence of Lewisham (TikTok)
Cinematography in Tooting (TikTok)
2,400 pages of evidence, then hours of grilling: How Heaven avoided permanent closure
The famed gay nightclub Heaven has reopened after scraping through a license review triggered by an alleged rape by one of its bouncers. The club in Charing Cross held a reopening party last night, but it had several new strict conditions in place since police and the council temporarily shut it down in November: no-entry after 3am, a ban on queue drinking and revamped security.
These conditions were the result of a crunch licensing meeting on Friday, in which club owner Jeremy Joseph faced off against Westminster councillors as well as representatives from the Met Police. More than 2,400 pages of material were published ahead of that meeting that gave fresh details about the incident that led to Heaven's closure. The meeting itself would go on to last more than five hours.
Statements submitted by the Met contained in the report pack had revealed that, on the night of November 1, one of the club's bouncers had allegedly "preyed upon" an 18-year-old woman who had been waiting in Heaven's queue for around two hours. The woman alleged she had been removed from the queue by the bouncer, then raped in a car. Crucially, when she returned to the club to report the incident, she was told by the head of security to return the next day, but no report was made to police.
The Met also included details of several other recent incidents at the club, including 36 reports of sexual offences, 44 assaults, and a particular incident where Heaven security staff were filmed beating up a punter. Police concluded that Heaven was the "highest crime generator" in the borough of Westminster.
However, despite all that, the Met's representative at the meeting said the force did not want Heaven to shut permanently, citing the venue's importance to London's LGBTQ+ community. Instead, councillors and owner Joseph agreed to several arrangements to bolster security at the club. That included ditching the security company that had hired the bouncer — Joseph's representative told the meeting the club had been "duped", because it would turn out the bouncer had been working using a fake ID. Other measures included improved body cams on security staff and CCTV. "The conditions agreed between the Met Police and the premises licence holder provide a turning point for a venue which provides an important service to everyone, in particular the LGBTQIA+ community," said Westminster councillor Maggie Carman as she delivered the verdict. "The committee recognises the iconic nature of this premises."
In a statement posted to Instagram after the hearing, Joseph said he was "relieved" the club was re-opening. He wrote: "There are so many people to thank but I need to spend a few days to get my thoughts together as the last few weeks have been both physically and mentally draining". But there may be one more consequence of the fiasco still to come — in the documents submitted to the hearing, Joseph revealed he may have to sell off Heaven's sister venue, G-A-Y in Soho, to deal with the financial hit of temporarily shutting Heaven. A potential sale hasn't been confirmed publicly by Joseph outside of the documents though. More when we have it.
From our readers
Welcome to our new section, From our readers, where we hope to bring you thoughts about London from other Spy readers on a somewhat regular basis. Think of it as our letters page, like in the local papers of old.
If you've got something you'd like to share then ping us an email at londonspy@substack.com. Pseudonyms permitted.
Bus speeds
On November 24, we published a report on London bus speeds, and the surprising extent to which they’ve slowed down over the past decade. At one point we wrote:
As to why — some, like those who spoke to the Times for their write-up, blame the rise of low-traffic neighbourhoods... Another potential reason: not enough segregated bus lanes. While TfL says it's adding 25km of new bus lanes by 2025, there have been cases where bus lanes have been removed to make way for new cycling routes.
That prompted Simon Munk of the London Cycling Campaign to get in touch with some thoughts:
That Times piece, which happily you largely dismiss, is by Andrew Ellson - who is notoriously anti-LTN. The people quoted in that piece all come from a tiny clique of virulently anti-LTN folks who all know each other, formed around the 'Social Environmental Justice' group. Anyway, suffice to say the whole lot have clear form for cherry-picking data and other less savoury behaviour.
Totally agree on lack of bus priority measures - lanes, bus gates etc. What's fascinating here is how weak TfL, particularly TfL Buses itself, has been on embracing such measures. The targeted 25km is very low and there are ways they could easily go far higher quicker - but it'd requre TfL (Buses) to be bold and in my view their approach seems mainly 'don't touch anything, it might impact a bus journey'. An entire coalition of London transport campaigns has written to TfL asking them to be bolder on reducing motor traffic levels and enabling bus priority (and active travel measures too).
On bus lane removal - there's been a tiny amount of bus lane removal for cycle schemes and almost universally where those bus lanes were evidenced to be basically not worth buses going into! The charts from TfL showing the decline in bus speeds show a far better picture - obviously the decline is worst generally in central and inner London, but there is no clear picture (and would be if the problem was all the cycling) across London comparing boroughs which have done loads and those that have done none. If cycle schemes were the harbinger of a collapse in bus speeds over the last decade, we'd expect to see Waltham Forest as the worst collapse, with Lambeth, Camden, Islington, City all nearly as bad while Merton etc. should have rising bus speeds. On this there is quite a lot of TfL data showing what is causing the biggest problems to bus speeds - lack of bus priority is definitely part of the issue (and 'traffic/congestion' associated) but another big issue appears to be 'roadworks' - which boroughs and roads are seeing long-term capacity hits due to roadworks is a core predictor of bus route speeds, unsurprisingly - as is the rising amount of roadworks in London.
Hackney schools
On November 16, we published a report that asked: have luxury flats shut a school in north London?. Hackney council is closing several schools in the borough over falling pupil numbers, and we took a look at claims from campaigners that an estate regeneration project in Woodberry Down was partly responsible for one of the school closures.
Dave Hill, who runs the OnLondon news site, wasn’t exactly convinced. He wrote:
I think the answer to your headline's question is probably "no". I say that as a Hackney resident who knows a bit about the school (including past and present staff) and a bit about the Woodberry Down regeneration.
The regen is altering the social mix of the estate footprint, but the deal is that council tenant households who want a replacement new home on the estate can have one, including with additional rooms if they have become overcrowded (and without the damp, mould and general decay that prompted the regeneration in the first place). Some won't, preferring to stay where they've been temporarily housed (this happens). Some will have been wanting to move for years. Let's not assume that everyone who doesn't come back has been "pushed out".
It may that incomers renting or buying the new full market-priced homes don't have many kids, but even so the overall effect of the regen, due to the increase in housing density, is to increase the number of people living near the school, not the opposite. And while we might clutch our pearls at Berkeleys marketing the expensive homes with words like "luxury" and so on, the fact remains that those high-end sales pay for the replacement social rent (and other "affordable") homes. Do we want local working-class people decently housed or don't we? Plenty who've already been rehoused there are very happy.
My guess is that if local housing availability explains some of the reduction in the number of local children, the adjacent old residential terraces provide a better clue. Many such homes are owned by middle-aged and boomer Londoners whose children have grown up and don't want to sell. And even if they did, those houses would be too expensive for would-be first time buyers in the age range that has primary school age children. They are looking in Leyton and beyond.
Beware grumpy Hackney lefties proffering causal relationships between unrelated things that they dislike (there are quite a few of them round my way).
On location
On October 26, we published a piece by freelancer Gregory Wakeman on London’s relationship with the film and TV industry. He spoke to several location managers in the biz and asked about the practicalities of filming in the capital.
For Spy reader Richard, there’s been one particular TV that films in London that’s been a source of bother:
I didn't used to mind stopping for productions, but Slow Horses has eroded all my goodwill by filming so much, for so many years, and all around the same areas.
I now just walk through any production, sorry!