Pub boss drops strip club plan
 | | Club Imperial owner Altarslan Bali |
CAMPAIGNERS have won their battle to stop strippers and naked table dancers from performing at the former headquarters of Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn.
The owner of the Red Rose in Seven Sisters Road, Finsbury Park - now known as Club Imperial - has withdrawn his application to lay on "striptease and fully nude tableside dancing".
The Red Rose was owned by the North Islington Labour Party, which gave it its iconic name, until it was sold in the 1990s.
For 20 years, it also hosted the Red Rose Comedy Club - where many leading comedians such as Russell Brand, Eddie Izzard and Harry Hill launched their careers - until the comedy club closed in 2008.
But in December, owner Altarslan Bali asked Islington for permission to host striptease and naked table dancing from 9am until 4am on Fridays and Saturdays, and from 9am until 2am the rest of the week.
Mr Bali claimed to have cleaned up the area of prostitutes and pit bull-wielding drug pushers since taking on the nightclub a year ago - but said it was not busy enough to make ends meet.
Speaking at the time, the married father-of-three said: "I have helped clean this area up. I have security guards who keep an eye, I have 28 CCTV cameras and I am in constant communication with the police and the council. But if we don't have table dancing, we are going to go bankrupt. There is also a high demand for it."
He was even backed by Sergeant Chris Walsh, the head of Finsbury Park Safer Neighbourhoods Team, who said: "The new landlord has barred any disreputable people and has been trying very hard to maintain the premises and make a living and this is the avenue he wants to go down."
But now Mr Bali has withdrawn his application in the face of mass opposition from residents and local councillors.
Mr Corbyn, the Labour MP for Islington North, welcomed his decision, saying: "I am very pleased that the applicant has seen sense and has withdrawn this wholly inappropriate and, quite frankly, distasteful application.
"I hope that the licensing system will get tough and stop allowing this type of thing in our borough."
There have been a number of attempts to bring raunchy entertainment into Islington in recent years.
The Archway Tavern tried - and failed - to bring pole-dancing to its Archway roundabout pub but For Your Eyes Only successfully won the right to lay on fully naked and topless dancing at a luxury new venue in City Road, Finsbury.
Mr Bali was unavailable for comment but it is believed that he still wants to be able to host strippers at private stag nights.
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