Plans for redevelopment of the Black Cap in Camden
Iconic LGBT pub and cabaret venue the Black Cap is London’s latest independent cultural venue to face redevelopment.
Camden Council has announced its intention to approve planning permission to turn the first, second and third floor of the building into three flats, resulting in the loss of the first-floor Shufflewick Bar and a reduction in the ground-floor bar area of eight square metres.
There are also question marks over whether sound insulation would be sufficient to keep residents of the new flats from complaining about noise from the pub.
According to plans, the ground floor would gain more daylight and better disabled access.
Built in 1889, the Black Cap is one of London’s oldest continually operating LGBT venues, rivalled only by the Royal Vauxhall Tavern. Known as the ‘Palladium of Drag’, the Camden pub has hosted drag shows since at least the 1960s, including turns by such iconic acts as Danny La Rue, Hinge & Bracket, Regina Fong, Adrella and Mrs Shufflewick, after whom the first-floor bar is named. The venue is now owned by Faucet Inn.
It has enjoyed a resurgence in the past couple of years thanks to experimental drag night The Meth Lab, regular shows from stars of Ru Paul’s Drag Race and other new ventures.
The council officer’s report on the application for planning permission concludes that “the proposed development would strike a balance between maintaining sufficient space within a venue important to the LGBT community and meeting the need for new housing”.
The report notes that the pub was turned down last year for Asset of Community Value status because the application “did not meet the specific criteria required to be a valid nomination”.
It also notes that after neighbours were notified of the redevelopment plan, the council received 61 letters objecting to the scheme and none in support. The report can be read in full here.
Similar redevelopment plans for the venue were rejected by the council in 2012 and 2013, partly because of concerns over noise levels in the new flats. This time, it says it’s satisfied that acceptable noise levels should be attainable, yet grants that sound insulation is a “substantial” challenge and acknowledges that “the Council’s environmental health team remain uncertain that it will be practicably achievable”.
There seems therefore still to be the potential for new residents to complain about noise from the pub, with the onus apparently on the pub to ensure compliance.
The report states that: “Prior to the first use of any amplified sound equipment at ground and basement level, an appropriate automatic noise control device must be fitted to all amplified sound equipment. The device must be: a) Set so that the volume of any amplified sound emanating from the premises is inaudible in any residential part of the new development. b) The limiting device must be capable of controlling the frequency element of entertainment music.”
A proposed smoking terrace will also be subject to sound regulation.
The final decision about the proposed redevelopment will be made at a council meeting on Thursday January 22 at 7pm at Camden Town Hall. Members of the public can apply to speak at the meeting, which is filmed for webcast on the council’s site.
See the letter below for more information.
Further reading:
Time to fight back: six ways to defend London culture from property development
