Hackney watering hole that was shut down after a stabbing could be reborn as a ‘happy pub’

Heart of Hackney lost its licence last year

The man who wants to take over a pub that was closed down after a stabbing has pledged to create a “happy” place.

Gokhan Yeter has experience of security in pubs and clubs, and runs his own bodyguard business.

He decided to withdraw his application for a licence at the former Heart of Hackney pub on Mare Street to do more work with residents.

Locals are concerned about noise, proposed late opening and the building’s previous history.

Yeter told Hackney’s licensing committee on 9 August: “I want to make this business work. I want it to be perfect, I want to be happy with our neighbours.”

A previous licence for the Heart of Hackney was revoked last year after a man was stabbed in the arm. Police only learnt about it when he was treated in hospital.

Yeter was not connected to the previous pub.

He said measures to prevent problems would include bag searches, bans on amplified music in the garden, CCTV to eliminate blind spots, and checks on toilets every half an hour.

He applied to sell alcohol until midnight from Sunday to Thursday, with recorded music ending at 1am.

On Fridays and Saturdays, he hoped to serve drinks until 2am and stop the recorded music at 3am.

Speaking anonymously at the licensing committee, some neighbours said they wanted the garden to shut at 8pm rather than 9pm.

One man said he could not hear his family in the garden and another said: “It’s a huge echo chamber.”

Another resident described the noise in the garden in the past as “loud and aggressive”.

One neighbour told the committee: “We have all had to live with the various incarnations of this pub.”

They said in the past “there were numerous occasions when the Hackney Noise Monitors from the council stood in my children’s bedroom at 2am”.

Residents said they wanted the licence to be for core hours only – until 11pm from Sunday to Thursday and to midnight on Fridays and Saturdays.

Yeter’s lawyer Kevin Leigh said of the new team: “They want a brilliant neighbourhood pub. They don’t want a pub with maybe a terrible history being judged as a pub with a terrible history.”

He said the team would withdraw the application and come back with a new one.