Nags Head strip club licence revoked for second time by council

Tower Hamlets Council ‘remained concerned’ about 2022 revelations that performers at the Nags Head touched patrons in a breach of regulations.

Councillors have voted for a second time to revoke The Nags Head strip club on Whitechapel Road today. 

The Nags Head applied to Tower Hamlets Council to renew its sexual entertainment venue (SEV) licence.

But councillors ‘remained concerned’ by breaches found at the venue in August 2022, when performers rubbed their breasts in undercover officers’ faces.

Councillors then voted to strip the Nags Head of its licence in September 2023.

However, the licence holder appealed the decision, and the council agreed to reinstate its licence with extra conditions attached.

These included regular unannounced visits to the venue by an independent compliance auditor and more stringent monitoring of private performance areas.

The venue then applied to renew its licence, which it must do annually, in May this year.

But almost 300 people objected, triggering a hearing in front of a committee of Aspire, Labour, Conservative and independent councillors last Friday.

The Nags Head’s licensing lawyer, Sarah Louise Taylor, noted that many of the objections seemed to duplicate each other, according to hearing minutes.

She said they repeated the wording of a Facebook post encouraging people to object.

Taylor also noted that many of the objections were on moral grounds, which can’t be used to inform licensing decisions.

Of the 299 objections the council received, only 30 were deemed valid and were presented to the committee.

Taylor said that since the 2022 visit, council licensing officers and police had visited the Nags Head in November 2024 and found ‘no matters of concern’.

Minutes say she argued that this, the fact that the venue had received no complaints, and the conditions on its licence ‘all demonstrated how the premises operated and should reassure the committee’.

Two people, named in the minutes as Mr Khalisadar and Ms Malique, spoke in opposition.

Khalisadar said that a strip club was ‘not consistent with the economic and cultural viability of the area’.

He said the Nags Head had a ‘track record’ of licensing breaches and said that, in his opinion, strip clubs ‘attracted vulnerable women and impacted upon community safety’.

Malique said that the number of valid objections the council received ‘suggested that the community did consider the premises to be a problem.’

She pointed to its proximity to ‘sensitive land uses, the regeneration of the Whitechapel area,’ and raised concerns about crime and antisocial behaviour.

In its deliberations, the committee accepted there was no evidence of crime and disorder linked to the Nags Head or any recent breaches of its licence.

They also said the commercial nature of the area had not changed since the venue was first granted its licence.

Minutes noted there are ‘no schools or religious institutions in the vicinity’.

However, the minutes also say the committee members ‘remained concerned’ by the breaches found in 2022. They say this ‘undermined members’ confidence in the licence holder’.

Minutes state: ‘Notwithstanding the evidence of more recent compliance, that was insufficient to allay members’ concerns about the suitability of the applicant to hold an SEV licence.’

Eight councillors voted against renewing the licence, one voted in favour, and three abstained.

If you liked this, read Nag’s Head strip club faces battle over license renewal