'Ghastly' club gets go-ahead

111 objections fail to stop exclusive New York-style night spot

from West End Extra, 5th March 1999

by Martin Newman

A London version of the notorious New York night spot Studio 54 will be set up in St Martin's Lane, after residents lost their fight to keep it out.

An application by New York club owner Ian Schrager to open a night club on the ground floor of the St Martin's Lane Hotel development was accepted yesterday (Thursday) by Westminster Council.

Schrager, who co-founded Studio 54 in New York, plans to build a bar and private club on the site, and will lodge a second application to extend into the basement.

Residents believe the club will be a clone of the exclusive New York night spot, which in the '70s attracted celebrities like Andy Warhol, Mick and Bianca Jagger and The Velvet Underground.

The application for a music and dance licence was accepted after two days of testimony from the applicant and over 100 objectors.

But community groups vigorously objected to the proposal, saying the club would be like having another Stringfellow's in the midst of one of the West End's largest residential areas.

The application was opposed by 111 residents and four community groups, all who fear St Martin's Lane will be three-deep in stretch limos outside the club.

John Bos, of the Covent Garden Community Association, said Schrager now had a "foot in the door".

"We fear that it will be the beginning of the end", he said. "They will make another application for the basement in six months time and seek to increase the hours on the ground floor no doubt, which will make the whole thing a 3am operation".

Westminster Council's licensing sub-committee, however, refused to grant Schrager's company a licence until 3am.

The club was given a six month licence to operate until 1am, with the council saying the operators would first have to prove they would not be a noise nuisance to residents.

Schrager, who is redeveloping the hotel, plans to build a private members' club, with screening rooms and conference rooms.

No other hotels in the area, including the Waldorf, Strand Palace and the Savoy, are licensed beyond 1am.

"It's absolutely ghastly news" said resident Laurence Fitch. Mr Fitch, 90, said residents in the 42 flats of the nearby Peabody Estate had already gone through a "nightmare" of noise while the St Martin's Lane building was gutted.

"It's absolutely hell, our lives have been made a misery. It will be going on until one o'clock and they're applying for a dance licence until three in the morning. I don't know what we're going to do, all the complaints that have been made haven't swayed the council".

 

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