A Brighton venue and its neighbours have worked on a compromise over the potential noise from an outdoor seating area.
Brighton Pride CIC (Community Interest Company) applied to remove a restriction that banned drinking outside its base in Cheapside.
The organisation wanted to create space for up to 100 people to eat and drink outside its Ironworks Studios headquarters on its existing licence.
It had hoped that customers could have food and drink outside Ironworks from 11am to 10.30pm daily but agreed to close the area earlier after hearing from neighbours.
Ironworks Studios has had an alcohol licence since March 2021 and has held occasional late-night events after submitting “temporary event notices” (TENs) to Brighton and Hove City Council.
But two sets of neighbours with young children addressed a council licensing panel today (Tuesday 20 June), highlighting how noise echoed around the buildings in Cheapside.
They received support from Green councillor Ellen McLeay who has lived in the area for 13 years and now represents West Hill and North Laine ward on the council.
She told the licensing panel, made up of three councillors, that the Ironworks building was used by businesses and the co-working space known as “The Skiff”.
Councillor McLeay said that the recent shift to being an entertainment venue meant that more people were coming to the area, drinking and behaving anti-socially.
She said: “The residents living in this area have young children of school-going age who are having their sleep disrupted.
“My concern is extending the licence and increasing the numbers of people on a certain side of the building where they’re allowed to drink. Those noise levels will increase.”
She asked for a cut-off point to be agreed between Brighton Pride and residents to stop the use of the outside area earlier than 10.30pm.
Neighbours Jon and Corinne Peacock have two children and wanted assurances that the outdoor area would not result in “prolonged” noise late into the evening disturbing their children.
Mr Peacock said: “Our original fear was that the changes would be encouraging an all-night beer garden outside but that doesn’t seem to be the case and probably wasn’t intended to be the case.
“There is still some anxiety about the prolonged period before any events start, with eating and drinking outside being a nuisance in itself, and the longer that customers are in the venue drinking, the more likely there is rowdy behaviour outside.”
Demetrius and Angela Frantis have two children of primary school age and find the noise around bedtime a problem.
Mr Frantis said: “If we could get some kind of agreement where the outside area, which is closest to our house, would be shut by 9pm, bar disabled access and tidying up, that would be perfect.
“There are two accesses to the venue, so if people wanted a cigarette in the second interval, they could easily go outside the Blackman Street entrance which is much further away from residents.”
Brighton Pride director Paul Kemp said that the organisation had been based at Ironworks for the past nine years.
The CIC had started holding events when the coronavirus pandemic led to Pride being cancelled – for two years running. But in 2021 they were able to host events at the building.
After complaints about opening and closing shutters and emptying bottle bins late at night, Mr Kemp said that these activities were moved to the day.
Pride used the “temporary event notices” to comply with licensing law for late-night events for New Year’s Eve and International Women’s Day. Mr Kemp vowed not to use the TENs process for club-style evenings in the future.
During negotiations, he agreed to close the outside area at 8pm from Sunday to Thursday and at 9pm on Fridays and Saturdays.
Mr Kemp said that Ironworks was an accessible venue and a “safe space” for disabled people and people who were LGBTQ+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or questioning).
He said: “By default, comedy is an older crowd. People come in, have a drink at the bar and have something to eat. Currently, people cannot take a drink outside.
“It’s not during the week. It’s only Fridays and Saturdays and the occasional show on Thursdays.”
Mr Kemp said that at weekends just a few people would be outside during the second interval of a show no later than 9.45pm.
Councillor Nann said that he understood families’ concerns about the effects of noise on young children, not just on school nights.
He said: “Children are entitled to peace and quiet whether they have to go to school the next day or not.”
Councillors were asked to consider the earlier closing times for the outside area and to add a condition to the licence requiring acoustic quilted fabric to the outside fencing.
The licensing panel – councillors Julie Cattell, Paul Nann and Tobias Sheard – retired to reach their decision which should be made public within five working days.
Adults can’t be trusted like they once were, most of them still play with their x box. says it all really.
“Adults” covers quite a lot of people. some of us yes play on XBox yest can be trusted so I’m not sure that, on the subject of trust, “all” is said, really or not.
The issue here is that Ironworks was once a business centre and co-working space and now it is a theatre and TV studio as well. As a business centre, it would have gone quiet by 6pm when workers left to go home. Now the theatre starts up at that time, creating noise for nearby residents that wasn’t there before.
See you on XBox Live, Dean!
This sounds like the thin end of the wedge. The property was designed and intended to be used for office / light-industrial purposes, hence the businesses that share the surrounding commercial units (Halfords etc). The attempt to turn it into an entertainment venue and shoe-horn in outside seating for 100 drinkers sounds very opportunistic and is clearly not being done with much thought or consideration for local residents. Many of them will have lived there well before this office became an entertainment venue so they have already have to put up with the noise and inconvenience of the “temporary events” on New Year’s Eve etc and it is understandable that they do not want that experience every weekend (which no doubt will, in time, become 7 days a week in a future application). There are a large number of existing pubs, bars and restaurants in Brighton that are “safe spaces” and already cater for the same demographic. There is no shortage of similar venues and this one is not offering anything that does not already exist elsewhere. For the good of the community, let’s hope that our newly elected councillors decide to protect the interests of the local residents and keep commercial entertainment venues (and all the anti-social problems that inevitably come with them) in the areas of the City that are designed to accomodate them.