A group of travellers turned up at the Sugar Lounge last night and proceeded to make a horrible noise into the middle of the night and the bar staff didn't do anything. Police were called to Stroud Green by neighbours twice (not by me) and the first time it was the community police who just were a bit relaxed. The 'Police' turned up second time. Myself and other neighbours had a chat to them and they told us that something like 20 complaints were made.
I appreciate that Sugar Lounge have made efforts to improve things (but please if you employ a door person, please let them be more active and not so passive). It's ironic this comes after a day of positive vibes from me about them. I understand as it's Tuesday no security is there. I realise it was rogue party of idiots, but you really need to control your patrons. I ran a club in the 90s with a few other people that had 700 plus people attending in a dodgy club in Hackney and we controlled it. One complaint from neighbours and we dealt with it. And we had two amazing doormen, but we paid them well.
I've spoken to other neighbours and we're not willing to tolerate tables and people left outside late at night. I wish you well but if you proceed to not respect your neighbours you will go the way of other pubs/bars like Chapter One round here. We won't respect the way you treated us last summer and we're organising police, neighbours and environmental health already.
Again, I wish your business well, but please don't take us for granted!
Comments
I feel that SOME of the critisism of Sugar Lounge is a bit unjust. Because they are open late, a lot of people are drunk already when they arrive. Which may not be obvious to the staff straight away as people tend to pull themselves together before going into a new place.
I mean there is only so much you can do!!! The problem is often the people, not the venue itself. If the doorman refuses them entry, chances are they will hang around on the pavement arguing or debating their next move. And you can't just forcibly move someone off a public pavement!
If someone has spent the evening there and are leaving in separate directions, chances are they will have a chat/cigarette/extended goodbye outside. And drunk people just tend to be loud.
Normally I would say if you live on a busy road, you have to put up with a certain amount of noise, but I wont, as I've seen previous threads, and the words "worms" and "can" springs to mind.
I do sympathise with those who are effected, but from what I have seen, the Sugar Lounge has listened and tried to do something about the situation. And at the end of the day, this street is always going to have some level of noise.
They're clearly trying, but falling way short of the standard set by other restaurants in SG. My guess is the same applies to controlling their customers. You have to know what you're doing, or hire someone who does.
I agree noise is part of living on a busy road and I'm not that averse to it, but allowing people out with drinks or to sit at tables after 11 pm when most people are getting fairly drunk causes quite a din. I use ear plugs at night (wax ones from boots) but not so good when you want to watch a dvd or tv.
Have a lovely weekend!
I didn't want to get too personal and wanted to keep it on the issue but there's a weird attitude on here from about 5-10 of the regulars. I've known about this site for about four years but only registered to comment on here after seeing Sugar Lounge's posts. They are registered and come on here, so I think it's fair enough to assume they read my posts too. I don't want to ban all traffic, bars etc. I accept living on SGR means that I have to put up with a certain degree of noise. Buses ( I haven't called for their re-routing), delivery trucks (again I have never complained), traffic (I've never called for its banning).
Pubs/bars/restaurants, I love them (I've managed one, run clubs, worked as a barman, cook and waiter). I go out to a pub or two every week. But as someone said pubs and bars on SGR are badly regulated. How did K1 get away with the noise for so long? How did Sugar Lounge get away with its all night outside parities last year for up to two months (and they were parties)? I spoke to the police last Monday and they don't understand either but their hands are tied but they made a record of what is going on and if the environmental health are brought in a bars licence can be taken away within a year. But logs of complaints are needed. Again I love bars and don't want them to lose their licence. I'm too much of a nice guy.
We live in London, a modern city, an evolved city, congestion charging is used to calm traffic, there are some cycle routes and cycle lanes (not enough). We've stopped using coal burning power stations and there is no heavy polluting industry situated in the city limits. London tries to control the chaos. The same should go for bars and pubs and general noise pollution.
I accept there will be a bit of noise when people come out of the pub in high spirits and say goodbye to each other. What I don't accept is a bar leaving people on seats outside late at night with drinks in hand. It's not much to ask a bar to have a door person to ask people to calm down and ban them from re-entry if they don't and a bar to take in the chairs and benches at 11 pm (should be earlier i think).
Sugar Lounge have taken strong measures to be good neighbours and I thank them so much. Please keep it up all summer! xx
And hey, it's not like any of us neighbours need to, heaven forbid, sleep at this hour.
Shame, as they'd been doing so much better this past week or two...