Shoreditch venue owner no longer has to send police clubgoers’ NAMES – but still has to keep a list of them

A licensee has been freed from the shackles of a bizarre licensing clause ordering him to tell police and town hall bosses who was coming to events.

Up until last night, Yuval Hen was also only allowed 40 or more people inside his Studio Spaces E2 venue 24 times a year, and was even forced to change it to a workspace called Shoreditch Platform to keep it from going under.

The Gazette revealed last summer how thousands of clubgoers’ names had been passed on to the Met because of the “ridiculous” condition councillors placed on the licence when it was granted in 2014.

Photographer Yuval had applied for permission to sell booze at his studio so he could rent it out to private promoters. But because it falls inside the Shoreditch Special Policy Area, the council was only allowed to grant the licence under exceptional circumstances.

So for unclear reasons, Clly Wendy Mitchell and her committee decided it could only sell booze if it held no more than 24 events a year with 40 or more guests.

When it did so, Yuval had to send the police and council a warning two weeks in advance, and also send a list of everyone who was going.

But on Tuesday councillors decided he could have up to 100 people inside 100 times a year, and he no longer had to send everyone’s names to the authorities. He does still have to record them on a computer just in case, but he welcomed the news.

“This will allow us to run a consistent operation and employ more people,” Yuval told the Gazette. “I would like to thank Hackney for their understanding and for resolving the issue.”