Drumsheds was launched at the former Ikea store last year but has become plagued by serious incidents in recent months, reports Grace Howarth, Local Democracy Reporter
Drumsheds (inset credit Antoine J. via Unsplash)
A major music venue has been allowed to keep its licence despite “serious crime and disorder” and two deaths.
Drumsheds is a 15,000-capacity venue which opened inside the former Ikea store in Edmonton last year – making it London’s biggest nightclub.
But following two drug-related deaths and a stabbing in recent months, Enfield Council this week agreed to modify the conditions of the venue’s premises licence, with extra compliance checks also set to take place in future.
At a full licence review hearing at Enfield Civic Centre on Tuesday (7th) which lasted over six hours, the council’s licensing sub-committee was given more details of the recent serious incidents and heard representations on behalf of the Mayor of London, as well as local residents and clubbers who use Drumsheds.
Councillors heard that the first drug-related death took place on 12th October. Following a club night at Drumsheds, four revellers were conveyed by the venue’s own private ambulances to hospital after becoming ill from taking drugs there. One of the patients died and another required intensive care.
The second death happened on 7th December. Two Drumsheds clubbers were taken to hospital after taking drugs at the venue. One allegedly brought MDMA into the premises and took the drug. Despite receiving medical treatment, she died in hospital.
There have also been violent incidents. This included a stabbing on 16th November, when an attendee suffered “several lacerations” over his body and required hospital treatment after being attacked at Drumsheds by a suspect with a knife.
Documents detailing all three incidents stated the suspect had been able to bring the weapon into the venue.
Ellie Green, the council’s licensing team manager, confirmed the Metropolitan Police had asked the council for a full licence review following the two deaths and stabbing, and had determined it was a premises “associated with serious crime and disorder”.
At a previous meeting on 12th December, the licensing sub-committee decided it was necessary to take “interim steps” and provided “modified conditions to the premises licence pending a full review hearing”.
Four days later, Drumsheds owner Nine Point Eight, a registered culture and arts charity owned by Broadwick Group, submitted representations to the council pledging additional “enhanced measures” for an event being held on 18th December.
For this week’s hearing Justine Simons, Sadiq Khan’s deputy mayor for culture and creative industries, and Howard Dawber, the Lonon mayor’s deputy for business and growth, made representations in relation to the licensing review.
The pair both called for “all parties to work together to ensure that the venue can remain open and safe for everyone to enjoy” in a joint letter.
They said: “The closure of Drumsheds would be hard felt by the hundreds of thousands of people who safely enjoy music, dancing or immersing themselves in London’s culture at the venue every year, and by the staff and artists employed by the venue.”
In their experience Broadwick Live was “proactive” and took licensing duties “seriously” and had been “setting up arrangements to test drugs confiscated on its premises”.
However, an attendee who visited Drumsheds on 13th December said there were “unsafe queuing practices”, “security failures”, “inadequate facilities for the capacity” and “dangerous exit conditions”.
Following the hearing’s conclusion, Susan Erbil, cabinet member for planning and regulatory services, said: “Enfield Council’s primary concerns remain the safety and wellbeing of its residents.
“The licensing sub-committee heard the representations provided to them by the police and representatives on behalf of the venue management and agreed that the premises licence holder should retain their licence with modified conditions.
“Council officers and the police will continue to monitor the premises and undertake compliance checks but it is the premises licence holder’s responsibility to ensure the conditions are upheld.”
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