No Late Night Opening for Fulham Road Piri Piri Restaurant
Application of licence to serve until 2am was 'asking for trouble' say neighbours
Pepe's Piri Piri on Fulham Road. Picture: Google Streetview
A Fulham chicken shop has lost its bid to stay open until 2am after locals feared extending opening hours was “asking for trouble”.
Pepe’s Piri Piri in Fulham was refused a licence to stay open for a few extra hours after neighbours claimed it could keep them up at night and worsen problems with anti-social behaviour.
The business on Fulham Road currently has a licence to stay open and serve food until midnight from Sunday to Thursday and 1.30am on Friday and Saturday. The business owner recently applied to Hammersmith and Fulham Council to extend the hours to 1am from Sunday to Thursday and 2am on Friday and Saturday.
Local resident Simon Jones said opening the restaurant late at night would be “asking for trouble”. Simon, who has a five-year-old daughter, objected to the licence and said neighbours living near Pepe’s deserve peace and quiet between midnight and 6am.
He added, “It’s utterly absurd… We might as well have a 24-hour chicken shop seven days a week and get no sleep whatsoever. We own properties here and we have families and responsibilities.
“Anything beyond midnight I think is asking for trouble. We don’t have a plethora of nightclubs, it’s not the West End. I can’t see any merit for this whatsoever.”
Kenny Wilkins, an agent for Pepe’s said the restaurant would install and operate CCTV at the premises if the new licence was approved. She added, “We have good intentions here. I know that it’s a residential area but also it’s a business area.”
When asked by councillors how much more trade would likely be brought in as a result of the later opening hours, Ms Wilkins could not answer.
The council’s noise and nuisance officer James Rawlinson said the later operating hours could make existing local problems worse. He said Pepe’s is “a victim of its location” as there are known problems in the area of anti-social behaviour and noise around midnight and after. He also said there are issues with people urinating in the street and taking nitrous oxide, also known as ‘laughing gas’.
Local resident Charlotte Dexter also objected to the licence, fearing it would make problems with noise and antisocial behaviour worse. She added, “It’s kind of chaos.” Charlotte also said people hang around the local area taking laughing gas and use a nearby bus stop “as a toilet”.
Hammersmith and Fulham Council’s licensing committee rejected the proposal at a meeting on Wednesday, 12 October.
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October 14, 2022