‘Artisan gelato’ chain, Urban Chocolatier, has launched a new dine-in eatery in Kentish Town, serving sweet treats and refreshments until the early morning hours.
Owners UC Franchising Ltd had applied to Camden Council for a licence to provide customers with a “fine range of desserts and ice creams” – but not alcohol – until 2am at the Kentish Town Road premises, and to cease operations at 2.30am.
But neighbours and residents groups challenged this “outrageous” request, arguing that it would “make life worse for locals trying to sleep at night”.
Caroline Hill, of Kentish Town Road Action, said: “We and our children have to get up early in the morning for work and school.
“That’s going to be difficult if the high street is full of kids high on sugar.”
She added that granting the licence could encourage similar businesses to open in the area and lead to the neighbourhood turning into Camden Town, which was a “nightmare” after dark.
Another resident argued that the new “patisserie” was excessive in a neighbourhood already filled with similar premises, and that Urban Chocolatier would be “a magnet for all the inebriated and drugged-up people coming from Camden and Kentish Town”.
The applicant agreed that customers would be allowed to dine until 1am, after the Metropolitan Police set ten conditions it wanted to be met.
Deliveries will now be permitted until 2am at the latest.
The Met also imposed the rule that nobody carrying “open or sealed alcoholic drinks” would be allowed in the venue at any time its doors were open, and that “no audible sound should emanate from the premises between 11pm and 8am”.
At a licensing panel meeting last Thursday (June 19), the committee discussed the applicant’s guarantee that the premises would not become a “late-night kebab shop”.
The application itself stated: “For the avoidance of doubt, NO kebabs, pizza, fried chicken, or hot savoury food will be permitted or be sold on this licence.”
Regarding “heated food products” the applicant’s solicitor, David Dadds, said: “Urban Chocolatier does sell waffles, so I think we do have to be careful there.”
The panel approved the application with three extra conditions, that delivery drivers have access to toilet facilities, there is a guarantee the venue won’t become “something else”, and that it takes explicit steps to protect women’s safety on the premises.
