Developing the world’s premier night-time destination, London’s West End.   

MAKE was asked by a major leisure company to gather evidence of crime patterns and lack of enforcement of poor-quality licensed venues by the authorities responsible for London’s West End (they felt that they were getting a raw deal as their venues were all run properly). Westminster City Council, the local authority area in which much of the West End sits, was well known for its blanket refusal to grant new or extended licensed venues. In one sense, this was understandable – there are problems linked to the customers of some licensed venues in the West End, particularly at night, yet it’s a policy that tars all venues with the same brush.

Since then we have seen Westminster slowly but surely develop the type of night-time economy partnership-based approach which has been so fruitful elsewhere in the UK (for example Liverpool, Nottingham and Brighton). Yes, there is a need for Westminster to retain focus on regulation, but through its Licensees Charter, approach to new live music venues and small indie restaurants and bars  it has started to show ambition for the West End and is doing more than ‘routine enforcement’. This is real progress in London’s West End and is helping create new and diverse evening and night-time opportunities that were simply refused just a couple of years ago.

For more information on how MAKE can help the private sector in licensing, night-time economy and stakeholder engagement or local authorities develop an effective after dark partnership click the button below…