Neighbours blast venue after park turned into London’s ‘largest beer garden’

By Charlotte Lillywhite, Local Democracy Reporter

A park has been turned into the city’s “largest beer garden” after a group was given permission to sell booze from the pavilion, according to a councillor.

Conservative member Rosemary Birchall made the comments at a hearing to decide whether to allow Trinity Fields Trust to keep the pavilion’s outside area at Trinity Fields in Wandsworth open an hour later.

The extension would have allowed people to drink booze in the pavilion’s outside area on Trinity Road until 10pm every day instead of 9pm.

But Wandsworth council’s licensing committee threw out the application after a hearing on July 5.

Councillor Birchall told the committee locals “had to put up with very loud and boisterous activities nearly every evening and well past the closing-off time of 9pm, and often until 11.30pm” last summer, after the trust’s current licence was granted.

She said: “Residents’ concerns were about the excessive amount of noise that [the current licence] would cause to those living in the vicinity, with the creation of the largest beer garden in London. Their fears have been realised.”

A statement read out from neighbour Nike Bielby said the trust had “not upheld the conditions of this licence”.

It added: “It is unfair that our sleep is disrupted due to rowdy behaviour late into the evening. We didn’t sign up to living opposite a pub garden.”

Neighbour Melanie Bearne said: “This is a residential area, filled with young families. We live metres from the fields, with children’s bedrooms at the front of the house.

“When Trinity Fields Trust are having their noisy, outside drinking events, my children cannot get to sleep until past 9.30pm and if you let this application for 10pm through, then way after 10pm seven nights a week.”

She added they “should not be having to put up with drunk men standing on the street, directly across from the house, metres away, yelling, chanting and singing at 11.45pm”.

Licensing consultant Stewart Gibson, representing the trust, said the trust is not breaching conditions on its licence.

He said the pavilion’s outdoor area is used mainly in summer after cricket matches which often finish in the evenings, leaving little time to enjoy a drink afterwards.

Mr Gibson said some of the complaints related to days when temporary event notices were in place.

These allow for one-off events, including selling booze, without a licence.

He added there had been “teething problems” when the current licence was granted, which resulted in the licensing authority issuing a warning letter in July 2022.

But the authority had not taken any further action and many of the objections related to a period before the warning letter was issued, he said.

But the committee rejected the application after ruling the “impact of an extra hour would undermine the prevention of public nuisance licensing objective” due to the pavilion’s location.

The decision said: “Members considered it more likely that customers would remain outside longer with the same disruptive behaviour described by objectors continuing into the night.”

Pictured top: Trinity Fields in Trinity Road, Wandsworth (Picture: Google Street View)