Hackney Road strip club’s licence in jeopardy after it ‘mistakenly lifted Covid restrictions too early’

A local strip club offering fell foul of Covid rules and dancers got too close to customers, a licensing hearing has heard.

Ye Old Axe on Hackney Road has applied for a renewal of its sexual entertainments licence.

Owner Thomas Melody was fined £1,000 after licensing officers discovered breaches of Covid rules on two visits in July last year.

Licensing officers said there were no QR codes for customers to scan and they were not asked to provide their details for contact-tracing.

There was no social distancing or table service. Instead, customers were served at the bar and people were not wearing face coverings.

Lawyer David Forbes said the lifting of government restrictions was delayed from 26 June until 19 July, but Melody was called away on a family crisis and the pub’s restrictions were mistakenly lifted too early.

It would not happen again, he said, and felt the matter had been dealt with by the fixed penalty notice.

Forbes argued: “It would be wholly disproportionate to revoke a premises licence which he has held for 30 years, on this ground, given the circumstances in which it occurred and bearing in mind that these requirements ceased to have effect a fortnight later in any event.” 

A report by the undercover licensing officers said: “Customers were approached or appeared to be able to approach numerous women in the bar area, and were escorted by the women to a large upstairs room where for either £40 or £60 the women stripped completely.”

It added: “The performances were intimate and physical, breaching many requirements and standards usually demanded by premises operating as sexual entertainment venues.”

Forbes explained that Melody had not known that dancers were too close to customers when undercover licensing officers visited.

The licensing conditions mean performers have to be separated from customers.

The private area has since been moved downstairs so it can be supervised more closely, Forbes said.

He explained that “steps have been taken to remind the dancers of the licence conditions and a notice to that effect has been posted in their changing room”, and that “measures have been put in place for supervision of that area by door staff”.

Melody said the performers, who get fees from the people they perform for, “were instructed not to get too close to the customers”.

Six neighbours opposed the application .

One unnamed resident, who has lived in the areas for 15 years, claimed they witnessed one or two fights a week on the pavement outside the venue. They also claimed there was touting by taxi drivers offering to take people on to places “where sexual services are on offer”.

Melody refuted these claims and said police had never been called to fights.

“I have not had one or two fights since 1986, let alone one or two a week between customers and door staff,” he told Hackney Council’s licensing committee on 25 January.

He said: “These fights don’t happen – I’m sure if they had, the police would have had something to say about it.”

He said he did not have any control over taxis, but there has been no touting.

Another resident claimed there had been a sandwich board outside advertising “live nude girls”, but Melody said he has never had adverts like that.

One resident wrote that “the club is an outdated relic, which serves in no way the people living around it”.

Hackney’s licensing committee will publish its decision in five working days.