Last Days of Shoreditch street food market facing battle to reopen

“London’s original street food market” in Shoreditch faces a battle to reopen after Hackney’s public health chief said there was enough booze spots in the area.

The Last Days of Shoreditch, previously Night Tales, has been run in a site off Old Street since 2014, but the licence expired at the end of December.

A new application to reopen this year for eight months has now been lodged, but council officers have opposed it. The location falls inside the Shoreditch special policy area (SPA) where new licences are only granted in “exceptional circumstances”.

The licensing department have taken issue with the apparent alcohol-led nature of the market, which is a “significant departure” from the original street food focus four years ago.

On top of that, the public health team say the area already has high incidences of crime and violence. In 2017 there were 496 alcohol related incidents, 217 of which were assaults.

Penny Bevan, director of public health, concluded: “The applicant has not proposed suitable measures which would promote the

licensing objectives, nor mitigate against negative impact.”

A decision will be made by councillors on Tuesday next week.