Notting Hill pub The Champion faces licence review over pavement drinkers

The Champion, a pub in Notting Hill, was due before a full Kensington and Chelsea licensing hearing on Thursday 17 September. A neighbour had asked the council to review its licence because customers drink on the pavement outside.

The resident says people standing outside with drinks block the public highway. He wants the council to make the venue allow drinking outside only when customers are seated and using plastic containers.

What the neighbour told the council

In his application, which appears in a council report, the resident said drinkers gather outside “generating noise and disturbance for local residents”, mostly in the evenings. He said he had raised the problem with staff several times. He had asked them to turn the music down and to keep furniture inside the permitted area, but he said nothing had changed.

He also said drinking glasses, and sometimes broken glass, had been left on the mews beside the pub. He described a near miss in which his child almost touched broken glass, and said drunk people blocking the pavement also put children at risk.

Pub manager and supporters respond

One person wrote in support of the review and five wrote to back the pub. One supporter, Roberta Licurgo, called The Champion “a much-loved local institution”. She said the area had changed a great deal and it was now one of the few traditional neighbourhood pubs left in Notting Hill Gate.

Alexander Nandris, the general manager, said the people living in the two flats directly upstairs had made no complaint about the pub. According to him, staff check the pavement regularly to clear any glass and to stop customers drinking in areas the licence does not cover.

The pub stands close to Hyde Park. It was once known as one of London’s best-known gay pubs and is said to have been a favourite of members of Queen and The Clash.