Shoreditch residents slam Olympic ‘beer tent’

Hackney House will be the networking venue of choice for media, businesses and investors, says Hackney Council. Image: Hackney Council

Plans to erect a glitzy marquee in Shoreditch for the benefit of politicians and other Olympic dignitaries has caused a stir among residents of nearby streets.

Hackney Council was expected to give the thumbs up to a little publicised plan to erect the giant ‘networking venue’, called Hackney House, on a site in Shoreditch High Street.

The Town Hall’s website contains a page devoted to Hackney House, a ‘temporary venue’ designed to provide a hip hangout  for corporate sponsors, media types and other influential figures expected to swarm into the borough this summer for the Olympic Games.

The venue is expected to be open seven days a week, until half past midnight on some nights, and and will serve alcohol.

Nine letters of objection to the plans were received, with several residents complaining to the council that Shoreditch was already “saturated” with late night bars.

Another letter stated: “Hackney doesn’t and can’t manage the night-time economy as it is, this would only compound things.”

And one resident complained: “The application does not say how long ‘temporary’ is.”

Twenty four letters of support were received from individuals and organisations, among them the Shoreditch Trust. A statement on Hackney Council’s website posted prior to the planning committee meeting stated that the venue “will be open from early May until mid September”, thereby seeming to imply that the result of the meeting was a foregone conclusion.

One resident who contacted the Hackney Citizen claimed clearing had already begun on the site prior to 4 April, pre-empting discussions by councillors who sit on the planning committee. The council has denied that construction began prior to permission being granted.

Fore more information go to Hackney House.