Brixton O2 Academy ordered to stay shut for three months after crowd crush

By Robert Firth, Local Democracy Reporter

The O2 Academy Brixton has been ordered to remain shut until mid-April while a police investigation into a crowd crush that left two people dead continues.

Several people were trampled after falling over when a large group of people forced their way into the venue on December 15 last year, according to the Met.

A gig by Afrobeats singer Asake was cut short following the crush, and four people were rushed to hospital.

Gaby Hutchinson, 23, who was working as security on the night, and mother-of-two Rebecca Ikumelo, 33, from Newham, died in hospital after being injured in the crush.

One person remains in hospital in a critical condition. Another has now returned home.

The Met asked Lambeth council to temporarily close the venue following the incident.

At an emergency licensing hearing on December 22 the council ordered the 4,900-capacity venue to close until a full hearing in January 2023.

But at a meeting today, Lambeth councillors ordered the venue to remain closed for a further three months.

Councillor Fred Cowell, chairman of the licensing committee, said: “The decision of the licensing sub-committee is that the premises licence is suspended for a period of three months from today, expiring at one minute past midnight on April 16, 2023.”

The O2 Academy Brixton will not be allowed to reopen to the public until the company submits an application to the council to change the venue’s licence conditions.

About 5,000 tickets had been bought for the sold-out gig, Gerald Gouriet, representing the Met at the hearing today said.

Mr Gouriet said that the concert started at 8pm on the night, but that an hour into the gig a crowd of around 1,000 had gathered outside the venue in Stockwell Road.

Mr Gouriet said: “Staff at the venue closed the entrance doors and called the police for support.

“The police arrived at 9.16pm. When they arrived they found large scale disorder. The crowd was pushing against the doors, trying to force them open, which they eventually did.

“When the doors were breached, the crowd poured into the lobby towards the auditorium. A number of them fell to the floor. Several were injured as the crowd surged on and over those who had fallen.”

He said that it took police an hour to clear the crowd of about 1,000 people from outside the venue.

Academy Music Group (AMG), which runs the O2 Academy Brixton, had already agreed to shut the venue for another three months to allow the Met to continue its investigation into the incident.

AMG said it expressed its “sincere condolences to the families of those who died during the tragic incident and its genuine concerns for anyone affected by it”.

An AMG spokesman said: “AMG has reflected deeply and has come to its own decision to close the premises for three months whilst the investigations take place and, at the same time, to work in partnership with the responsible authorities, which will include a review of the licence conditions and proposed amendments.”

Pictured top: A olice cordon outside the O2 Academy Brixton (Picture: Robert Firth)