Objections as strip clubs across the Islington borough apply for new licences
Three strip bars applying for sex entertainment licences, including one close to a nursery and a school, have opponents hot under the collar.
The Flying Scotsman in Caledonian Road, King’s Cross, The Horns in Old Street, and Platinum Bar, Paul Street, both in Finsbury, will all be considered for new sex establishment licences at a meeting on Monday.
All have been providing sexual entertainment for a number of years but, following a council limit on the number of sex establishments in the borough, they now have to apply for a different kind of licence.
People in the area have complained, particularly about Platinum which is close to the Leapfrog Nursery in Clifton Street and the Lyceum School in Paul Street.
Platinum can currently open from 9am until the early hours, and six people wrote to the council asking to shorten these hours.
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One said: “I request the application be rejected or any licence restricted to between the hours 4pm and 9pm on weekdays only to avoid operation while local schools have young children in the vicinity of the sex club.”
In regard to The Horns, three local businesses raised objections due to the disturbance caused by strip club customers as well as fears for their female staff working late.
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One organisation said its clientele included “children and vulnerable persons” and a sex venue nearby is “inappropriate”. Another accused club patrons of being responsible for “discarded flyers, broken glass and vomit and urine”.
Cllr Paul Convery, Islington Council’s executive member for planning, regeneration and transport, represents Caledonian ward, which covers The Flying Scotsman.
He said: “The track record of the Flying Scotsman pub is not good at all. I have regularly spotted exotic dancers outside on the street smoking with very slight clothing barely covered by overcoats.”
He added the presence of sex entertainment venues gives the impression King’s Cross is characterised by “sex and drugs” despite the efforts to “stamp out the vice and sleaze that had blighted the area for several generations”.
A fourth strip club, For Your Eyes Only in City Road, Finsbury, which can open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, also applied for a new licence but no objections have been made.
