We don’t want to live above a noisy nightclub, say Hyatt Regency neighbours
By Robert Firth, Local Democracy Reporter
Residents of riverside apartments in Vauxhall have slammed a millionaire’s plan to open a late-night bar in the boardroom of an upmarket hotel next door.
Families in the neighbouring block of flats fear they will effectively be left living on top of a nightclub if Lambeth council approves the 168-capacity venue in the Hyatt Regency London Albert Embankment, which typically charges upwards of £250 a night for a room.
Cannon Corporate Limited, a firm controlled by ex-Iraqi politician Mudhar Ghassan Shawkat and which runs the 142-room hotel, wants to turn basement space in the 14-floor building into a bar opening until 4:30am on weekends.
Dubbed a ‘digital art space’, the venue would feature artwork on mirrored surfaces with LED screens, as well as music and specialist cocktails, according to planning documents submitted to the council.
Tim Foster, 68, who has lived in his ‘peaceful’ riverside flat next to the hotel for 20 years, said he was worried the late night bar would alter the feel of the area. He said: “I don’t want to be sitting over the top of a nightclub.
“The amount of taxis that arrive 24/7 already is enough, having all those people shouting in the street. But to add insult to injury and put a nightclub underneath our apartments – that’s insulting our intelligence.”
Rajesh Kataria, 62, who like Mr Foster moved into the apartment complex soon after it was built around two decades ago, said the location was totally inappropriate for such a venue. He said: “It’s a residential area. It [the bar] will affect a lot of people’s sleeping patterns.
“We can’t move our society to a nightlife society you have in the Middle East and places like that where things are open until five o’clock in the morning and other people’s social and daily life is not taken into account.”
Neil, a primary school teacher, who lives in one of around four dozen flats in the complex that were reserved for key workers when the block was finished in 2002, said a late night venue would be out of sync with the neighbourhood.
The 47-year-old, who asked for his surname not to be published, said: “The nightclub is not going to benefit anybody except the owner of the nightclub. If we are inviting people who want to party, it’s at odds with the residential area.
“There are empty arches further down Albert Embankment where there are nightclubs because that has not got any direct residential areas. That would strike me as a sensible location.”
The bar will be ‘open to hotel guests, a select guest list and pre-booked visitors’, according to documents submitted to the council.
Lambeth council will make a decision on the planning and licensed premises application for the basement bar in the coming months. Hyatt Regency London Albert Embankment declined to comment.
Pictured top: Residents of the apartment block next to Hyatt Regency Albert Embankment (Picture: Facundo Arrizabalaga)