The director of a London Fields record shop has said he fears it could be forced to close after neighbours applied for a review of its licence.
BBE Record Store, a record shop and events space in a railway arch on Helmsley Place, has received notice of an application to review its premises licence on the grounds of “the prevention of crime and disorder” and “the prevention of public nuisance”.
The store says it has faced persistent noise complaints over the past year.
Asked whether closure was a realistic prospect, director Peter Adarkwah said: “It’s a real possibility, according to our lawyers, that that could potentially happen – or at least [that we’d have to] restrict our activity severely to the point that it doesn’t make sense to stay there.”
The application was submitted by law firm Dadds LLP on behalf of Fabrik Residents, with no individual applicants named.
Adarkwah said the complaints come from the new residential building opposite the store, though he added that BBE has supporters within the building.
Of the suggestion of crime and disorder, he said: “It’s a bit crazy for them to even make that suggestion in the application.”
He said the complaints accuse BBE of staying open later than its licence allows, and that some have been made on days and at times when the store is closed.
“We start work at 10 o’clock in the morning, so staying in a venue until past 11 o’clock is just not something I’m trying to do,” he said. He added that the venue only runs later under a temporary event notice, such as on New Year’s Eve.
“We’ve never had the police come around, and we’ve never had the council come around and tell us that we’re going over our times.”
Adarkwah said the store has also been accused of not having a noise limiter, despite having one installed.
He said council officers were involved in setting it. One sat in a flat opposite on the phone while the volume was adjusted “until the neighbour was happy”, and an engineer then set the limiter. The store says it has also installed acoustic curtains.
“Anyone who walks in there can see it’s there, and it’s been working fine,” he said.
“They [the neighbours] claim that they’ve come to speak to us to discuss this. There’s no record or any email. It’s literally a 20-metre walk from their front door to our front door, and they’ve never come in there to speak to us.”
Adarkwah said he feels BBE is being singled out. He said he knows “on good authority” that the neighbours have spoken to other businesses in the area, including a restaurant a couple of doors down that stays open later than BBE, but that none of their licences have been put up for review.
The store is run by independent record label BBE – short for Barely Breaking Even – which specialises in soul, funk, hip hop, jazz and other Black music.
Adarkwah founded the label in 1996, off the back of running club nights, and it has used the London Fields arch as a record shop and free-entry events space since 2016. The arch is also the base for the label’s mail order, direct-to-customer sales and trade orders worldwide.
“We have a nice hi-fi system, not a club PA, because we’re not a club,” Adarkwah said.
“Social spaces are important because there’s so few of them and so many places have closed in the last few years. It’s all age groups, it’s a very diverse crowd, [and it’s] somewhere that people feel safe.”
The ‘Save the BBE Store’ petition, addressed to Hackney Council, has gathered close to 13,500 signatures. The deadline for representations to the council passed on Friday 23 October.
A GoFundMe to cover legal fees for a possible hearing had almost reached its £20,000 target at time of writing. Adarkwah said the store’s landlord, The Arch Company, had suggested BBE use its lawyers.
He said: “The support has been incredible. We’ve had a lot of contact from lots of lawyers and lots of council members and the licensing person at Hackney Council and MPs and Sadiq Khan’s office.
“We’ve had lots of conversations with all sorts of people who are going to be helping represent us because music culture is a huge part of London’s history.”
Adarkwah said the venue, which used to host events from Tuesday to Sunday after shop hours, has cut back to three nights a week. He said this has left the business down around £20,000 a month.
He said BBE was not consulted about the residential building opposite, which replaced warehouse premises.
The Agent of Change principle, which makes developers responsible for protecting new homes against noise from existing businesses, became national planning policy in July 2018. It was added to Hackney’s Local Plan in July 2020, more than two years after planning permission for the building was granted in May 2018.
A Hackney Council spokesperson said: “We have not taken any steps to close the BBE Store in London Fields. Like all councils, we are obliged to review the licence of any venue if we receive an application raising issues about how the venue operates.
“The review will consider all representations made about the venue alongside first-hand evidence.”
On the possibility of closure, Adarkwah said: “My core business won’t close. It’s just going to be expensive to move the thousands of records we have. It’s harder and tougher to find appropriate spaces. A lot of the warehouse-type places that existed in Hackney were all being knocked down.
“I think there’s genuine concern amongst people that tomorrow it could be BBE, the next minute it could be somewhere else.”
He added that there was “a lot of solidarity at home and overseas”.
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