Round Chapel booze bid falls flat with Clapton neighbours who claim children have to step over partygoers’ vomit

The Round Chapel in Hackney (Image: Archant)

Hackney Historical Buildings Trust, which owns the building in Glenarm Road, Lower Clapton, wants a licence until midnight on Friday and Saturday and 11pm other days.

The charity has even applied to hold boxing and wrestling events there. Pig’s Ear, an annual beer festival, and other one-off events have been held at the Round Chapel with temporary licences.

The charity, which also owns St Augustine’s Tower, has been around for 20 years to maintain the chapel and raises money by hiring out the hall.

Seven neighbours wrote letters of objection to the council’s licensing committee, which was due to decide on its fate on Tuesday, but HHBT asked for the hearing to be deferred so it could meet local residents and “hopefully resolve their concerns”.

Neighbours claim they have already made “numerous complaints” about the noise, disruption, rubbish and “sick on the street” caused at previous events.

“Amplified church singing starts at 8am on a Sunday so there is little enough respite as it is, without extending its licence into the evening,” said one. “Becoming a late-night bar and drinking destination similar to Dalston would come at a cost to local residents.”

Another said: “We hear the bass in our rooms, often get after-hours shouting outside our windows and vomit at our gate or on our car parked outside, which my children have to step over on their way to nursery and school.”

A spokesman said: “As a charity we want to make our building available for the right kind of event open to as diverse an audience as possible, and generating sufficient funds for our small organisation to care for its buildings.

“We are proud to provide our facilities to serve Hackney and a wider area, and look forward to working with local organisations wherever we can.”