East London club E1 wins council hearing to remove nudity clause from license
- PublishedThu, Aug 4, 2022, 10:20
- Words
- Share
- Published by Tower Hamlets Council earlier this week, the ruling protects the future of kink, queer and fetish events in the borough and possibly beyond.
- East London club E1 has been granted permission to remove the nudity or semi-nudity clause from its license. The ruling, which was published earlier this week by Tower Hamlets Council, is a boon to London's kink, queer and fetish clubbing communities. It means E1 can return, with immediate effect, to hosting events with nudity and semi-nudity, such as Klub Verboten. The sub-committee met on July 26th because the council had objected to E1's initial application to remove the clause. In light of an alleged sexual assault at the venue in February, the council was concerned that removing the clause would put people at risk. "Given the complete absence of evidence that the licensing objectives would be adversely impacted by the removal of the condition," the ruling read, "the sub-committee considered that the only appropriate and proportionate course of action open to it was to remove the condition entirely." That said, the sub-committee did add two conditions to the ruling. The first says E1 must "implement, maintain and comply with a wellbeing and safeguarding policy for queer, kink and fetish events," while the second says all kink, queer or fetish events at the venue must "operate a members-only policy." This won't be an issue for Klub Verboten, which already has a members-only policy. On the day of the hearing, the party's founder, Karl, helped organise a hundreds-strong protest outside Tower Hamlets Town Hall. Speaking to RA, he said "the important thing to understand about this ruling is that there was never a kink or fetish or BDSM community who challenged these things so openly. It's a game changer." He added: "We've been acknowledged. We're really happy about that, we're having good dialogues, there's a good understanding. As far as Tower Hamlets is concerned, and hopefully also other boroughs, that large question about whether nudity leads to increased risk of sexual assault is once and for all out of the room. It's been sorted." The disagreement between E1 and Tower Hamlets Council began in March, when the council contacted the club to enforce a 1982 law forbidding nudity and semi-nudity without the appropriate license. As a result, E1 was forced to cancel between ten and 12 queer and kink nights. But it won't need to cancel anymore. "I want to thank everyone who helped us fight this very important case for our basic freedoms," E1's cofounder, Yuval Hen, told RA. "Those who attended the hearing and sent supporter emails. We send a huge thank you to Klub Verboten and [founder] Karl, who is a true fighter. To Leo our barrister. To the NTIA, Amy Lamé and all the media coverage, and to Tower Hamlets sub-committee for making the right decision." The next Klub Verboten event at E1 will be the sixth birthday on September 16th. Find the full details in the event listing below. Here'a a tweet from London's Night Czar, Amy Lamé, celebrating this week's ruling.
- Fri, Sep 16, 2022
Klub Verboten 6TH BIRTHDAY LONDON
Jamaica Suk, Oliver Deutschmann, SORAYA*, TSUNIMAN