‘Bombarded by licences’: Broadway Market residents hit out at cafe’s booze bid
Residents living close to Broadway Market say their sleep is disturbed by people drinking nearby and idling minicab engines.
They shared their concerns with Hackney’s licensing sub-committee as it heard an application to serve alcohol at the latest branch of the family-run Cafe Route.
The eatery has older branches in Dalston and Haggerston and will offer Mediterranean and Middle Eastern food.
Brothers-in-law Mehmet Akis and Mehmet Uzunsakal say they aim to serve wine with meals and small plates and do not want customers to drink without ordering a substantial meal.
“We are trying to boost the food side of the offering,” Uzunsakal told the committee (3 August).
He explained that they are trying to build a brand with the same fare at each of the Hackney cafes.
“Our aim is not to feed people who want to booze 24/7,” he said.
“We are looking to complete our offering with a glass of wine, with a cheese board in the winter. It’s the Mediterranean, Middle Eastern offering.”
He added: “The audience we are targeting is the locals who will have a meal with us every now and then.”
The cafe plans to sell takeaway wines from £15 a bottle.
It has applied for a licence to serve alcohol from 11am until 10.30pm from Monday to Thursday and on Sundays, and until 11.30pm on Fridays and Saturdays.
The owners say they would drop plans for off-sales at Broadway Market if necessary as part of the licensing conditions. They pointed out that if people who bought food to take away to London Fields wanted to drink alcohol, they would simply buy it elsewhere.
Nearby residents from Dericote Street and Croston Street say they are already affected by noise from people drinking nearby and object to the prospect of off-sales of alcohol.
They are also concerned about people drinking at outside tables in the late evening.
Rachel Bowditch told the licensing committee: “We do strongly object to outside seating at night time, even with substantial meals.”
She pointed out that idling minicabs nearby in Dericote Street already disturb residents.
Louise Brewood, who chairs London Fields Safer Neighbourhood Area, said the streets around Broadway Market suffer from anti-social behaviour and could be designated a saturation area.
“There is drunken behaviour quite often from 2pm to 3pm in the afternoon when children are coming home, right through from Broadway Market,” she said.
“Residents are very worried that we are constantly being bombarded by licences in an area which is largely residential but is becoming part of the night-time economy.”
She added: “We are seriously concerned about noise levels coming from this premises if it is granted a late licence.”
Cllr Penny Wrout warned that clients at Broadway Market might have different expectations from customers at the other branches.
Hackney’s licensing sub-committee will make its decision within five working days of 3 August.
People who decided to live on or close to a ‘bustling, diverse’ (generic Hackney residents general sentiment) street now complain when they change their minds about it. No, it doesn’t work like that. Go and live elsewhere more secluded if you can’t stomach zone 2 London.
People have been living in residential areas of Hackney for years before it became the new hip area for “bustling and diverse” night-life commerce. None of us signed up for this when establishing our homes 5-10 years ago.
Perhaps consider that before throwing these sorts of comments around.
I think the clue’s in the name, if you don’t like the sound of people eating outside, maybe don’t live on a street that’s named ‘market
Erm, I’ve lived in east London for 22 years (First Brick lane and now London Fields) and it’s always been bustling and diverse.
NO Market means a street where you go shopping.
Broadway Market used to be part of the community a mini high street so that working people had somewhere to shop on their way home or at weekends. Anything from dry cleaners to shoemenders, and of course the essential Post Office, due to become yet another alcohol outlet.
The people who need to go away are the over priviledged white middle class arriving in the uber cabs, paying inflated prices just because someone says you need to be seen down Broadway market.
These loathsome self indulgent layabouts are far more of a threat to the community than anything else. They have colonised and destroyed a decent neighbourhood and are making peoples lives a misery.
When not shouting and singing they are pissing in the gutter or people’s basements areas.
Nobody wants these outsiders who are cynically exploiting the air heads who turn up because they think it is trendy to do so.
And it costs Hackney money. Extra security have to be employed to act as their nannies, extra cleaning has to be done, and most of the money earend no longer goes to local shops but to cynical outsiders who are syhponing off any earned income that could have been re-invested in the borough.
the problem is these spoilt loads of money louts are so emersed in their own wonderfulness that they are oblivious to how much they are hated.
A small clique had been allowed to devastate what used to be a family friendly community.
And Hackney Council and the local councillors have been asked to take action years ago but they have just let it get worse and worse.
The sooner gullible tourists and loads of money colonialists just move on (to no doubt destroy another area) the sooner the community can get back to leading a normal life. Not having to avoid the idiots who clutter up the area night after night and all weekend.
See above. Broadway Market and London Fields was a quiet family orientated area. Is nothing like Brick Lane.
the only similarity is silly air heads who destroy the true nature of an area, as has happened to Brick Lane and Broadway Market where they demand that their life style is catered to at the expense of the existing population.
And in fact Broadway Market is anthing but diverse and has effectively been ethnically cleansed over the last few years.
It is now the hot spot for the white priviledge community who have occupied the area at the expense of the existing community.
And you seem to be happy to be identified as part of that change for the worse.