Another resident said they enjoy living on the street said it is ‘preposterous’ to say customers are anything but ‘well-behaved’
A Chelsea restaurant said to serve “London’s best Sunday roast” may be forced to shape-up after a local resident said he is regularly disturbed by the noise coming from the establishment. High-end eatery No. Fifty Cheyne was brought before a Kensington and Chelsea Licensing Sub-Committee on Thursday, July 30 to face allegations from Colin Scagell.
The applicant told the Sub-Committee that he had been complaining about the establishment since November 2024. “Disturbance has occurred very frequently, at least weekly. Customers are often drunk, often disorderly, sometimes unwell, all of which creates nuisance to local residents,” said Mr Scagell’s official application for the review.
Legal Counsel for the premises, James Anderson, said that the previous manager had now been replaced. He added that this meant the new management had not yet been tested in their ability to control the venue.
Licensing Enforcement Officer David Williams attended as a witness for Mr Scagell. He said that the disruption did not meet the threshold for statutory nuisance but that the concerns should be taken into account.
Mr Williams said that while the nuisance may not seem great, Cheyne Row was “such a quiet street” that it would “create quite a disturbance.”
Legal Counsel for Mr Scagell, Sarah Le Fevre, said that her client repeatedly tried to resolve the issues with the previous business manager, shown to the Sub-Committee in a series of emails. “Direct interference with the licensing objectives, and the misery caused by those issues, continued and they continued until the venue shut fairly recently for what appears to be a fairly extensive program of refurbishment,” said Ms Le Fevre.
She described the disruption as “sporadic, unforeseeable and unpredictable”. Two other local residents also formally wrote to support Mr Scagell’s claims. No authorities made representations at the meeting.
In total, Kensington and Chelsea council had received 17 formal noise and nuisance complaints regarding the premises in the last 24 months. Mr Scagell suggested a number of conditions be imposed on the venue, such as ensuring a member of staff monitored the outdoors area after 9pm.
‘Claims are preposterous’
The Sub-Committee was privately shown a series of videos submitted by Mr Scagell which allegedly showed nuisance being caused by the venue.
Councillor Marie-Therese Rossi, who sits on the Sub-Committee, said that although there was noise in the videos, they didn’t seem to show many people outside the venue.
Mr Scagell told the Sub-Committee that it was hard to capture the disruption on camera due to the sporadic nature and without invading privacy.
Two residents also formally wrote in support of the premises. Mr Matthew Taylor, who also lives on Cheyne Row, wrote a letter in support of the venue, in which he said he enjoyed living opposite the premises. “In my opinion the grounds for the application are exaggerated and without merit,” he wrote.
“I, for one, consider that the management of No. Fifty Cheyne are sensitive to the local residents and that high class clientele who frequent the establishment cause a public nuisance, are an incitement to crime, or any sort of disorder, or present any threat to public safety is utterly preposterous exaggeration of their civil and well-behaved conduct.”
No. Fifty Cheyne said even if the panel found it could not enforce conditions, it was happy to volunteer some in order to improve relations with the applicant.
The hearing discussed several possible conditions, such as restricting the number of smokers outside and the hours of refuse collection.
A decision will be given within five working days.
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