Client: Village Underground

Project: Shoreditch Licensing Impact Study

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What were MAKE asked to do?

Shoreditch’s Village Underground is one of the most respected live music venues in the UK with a global reputation and over 200 artists visiting it every year. It also stages electronic music nights with some of the world’s best techno DJs. Competing to book the best talent against other late-night London venues such as Fabric, XoYo and Printworks in London (the latter with a 24hr licence) it wanted to extend its opening hours open until 6am at weekend. Despite an outstanding record of management, VU anticipated objections from a rapidly gentrifying residential Shoreditch area and from the police, if for no other reason than the 20% reduction of police resources that austerity has brought. To this end MAKE were asked to produce an independent assessment of whether extending its opening hours until 6am would generate any negative impacts.  

How did MAKE do it?

  • We undertook filmed studies of how customers arrived and left the building, how the management affected its dispersal and took noise measurements.  

  • We mapped crime and disorder in this part of Shoreditch and identified whether any of it was linked to the venue (it wasn’t). 

  • We mapped and analysed all other venues in the area and audited their management practices. We identified where there were problem venues that could be contributing to residents existing problems.  

What happened next?

Our conclusion was that due to the type of customer attending the venue (arty, culture and music-driven - not alcohol led), and because they were slightly older, that even if the venue was open until 6am, there was negligible risk of any problems. Risk had been already been eliminated due to the management protocols that had been put in place (arguably the best dispersal policy we have seen in action) and there would be no impact on crime, disorder, nuisance or neighbours. Despite some objections, the venue was granted its extension. As we predicted, there have been no problems created by customers leaving the venue later.  

What unique value did MAKE bring to this project?

Given our expertise in venue dispersal (we have inputted into numerous dispersal policies) we were able to identify where the issues were coming from that residents had cited as problems in the area (hint: alcohol-led venues targeted at 18-25s nearby).