Pub's licence under threat due to crime complaints

North Eight pub in Haringey, formerly the Hornsey Arms, had 40 police callouts between May 2024 and June 2025

A north London pub could lose its premises licence over repeated reports of underage drinking and fights between customers.

There were 40 callouts to North Eight pub in Hornsey between May 2024 and June 2025, of which 28 involved violence, and a further 16 in July.

The Metropolitan Police and Haringey Council said the number of incidents were "shocking".

A licensing consultant for the pub had previously said some calls ended with a "no crime" result and claimed they had been made maliciously due to prejudice against the pub's customers, many of whom are from the traveller community.

The council held a meeting of its sub-licencing committee on 5 August to review the pub's licence, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

A licensing consultant for the pub has challenged the police's claims, saying many of the calls were "malicious"

Committee member Adam Small said the pub had "repeatedly and egregiously" failed to uphold "the most basic requirements set out in the Licensing Act".

He added: "We are facing a sustained pattern of serious failings that have caused repeated and serious distress and fear to Hornsey residents."

The Metropolitan Police called the pub a "hotspot for violence and public order", stating that the landlord had "failed to implement effective security measures and uphold licensing conditions".

The pub was formerly named the Hornsey Arms and was taken over by James Kearns in 2021.

The sub-licensing committee initially met last month to discuss revoking the pub's licence.

However, this was delayed after licensing consultant David Dadds, acting on behalf of the North Eight pub, disputed the Metropolitan Police's claims, and said that some of the calls made had resulted in "no crime" and were "malicious".

He also claimed that "indirect discrimination" was involved as many of the pub's customers were from the traveller community, accusing residents of not wanting "a traveller pub" close by.

The Metropolitan Police advised the hearing to revoke the pub's licence entirely

The police said that approximately 19 of the 40 callouts involved members of the traveller community refusing to leave or fighting inside the pub.

They gave examples including a woman being served "to the point of vomiting" before being arrested for drunk and disorderly behaviour, and a 16-year-old child being served until 02:55.

The police noted that almost all callouts happened between 00:00 and 03:00.

The July meeting also heard from neighbouring residents, who said their daily routines had been disrupted by the venue and disturbances could be heard until 04:00.

Lowena Waries said she had changed her public transport routes and travel times after being verbally assaulted by patrons of the pub, with one customer climbing on to her balcony and throwing an object.

'Excessive noise'

At Tuesday's meeting, licensing barrister James Rankin, representing the police, said the situation had worsened in July.

He said there were 16 calls on nine separate dates between 4 and 30 July, made by residents, the alarm company, bar staff and security.

PC Carey Denham from the Metropolitan Police said there had been a "substantial" amount of times when bar staff and security were concerned that a big group of people had "got out of hand".

Mr Dadds asked again for the meeting to be adjourned, but this was refused, leading him to withdraw from the hearing.

The council's noise and nuisance officer, Craig Bellringer, said that the premises had received an abatement notice and two fixed penalty notices due to "excessive" noise.

He added that there had been four or five further noise complaints since June, and this was "one of the worst [pubs in Haringey]" for noise issues.

Mr Bellringer, Mr Small and the Metropolitan Police all advised revoking the pub's licence entirely, following the evidence heard at the hearings.

A decision will be published within five working days of the meeting, expected to be early next week.