June 2026 - Cargo licence appeal defeated

In April 2026 the Boundary Tenants and Residents Association were called upon by Hackney Council to act as witness against Cargo Nightclub / Shoreditch Bar Group, who were appealing their most recent licence refusal.  Jonathan spoke on behalf of the BTRA, and some of us returned to Thames Magistrates Court in June to hear the judgement. 

At the judgment hearing  we were pleased with the news that the appeal was refused. Cargo will not be granted a licence, again. This is a great win for the community.

This saga has dragged on for five years or more as the owner keeps coming back to Hackney to regain a licence, under various different brands and guises. Every time an application is presented to the council it costs the Boundary TRA a huge amount of time and effort to attend hearings and represent the residents. This time it is a legal judgement handed down by a court so the applicant will hopefully understand that his plans are never going to work and we won’t be subject to the same process repeatedly.

Issues with the Night Time Economy still affect the estate, but they have significantly reduced since the closure of Cargo. Those of you who have moved in more recently won’t have experienced the shocking level of disruption that this one nightclub caused to the community. 

Dozens of affected residents submitted impact statements during the time that Cargo was trading, personal stories of how the night time economy was disrupting their lives. These clearly made a deep impression on the appeal judge, who cited them in her judgment.

I find as a fact that as a result of this concentration of persons and their dispersal, residents on The Boundary Estate have suffered anti-social behaviour, graffiti on windows, knife crime, public urination including an instance where some urine seeped through a window into their home, consumption of drugs, street fights on the road including a stabbing in Calvert Avenue which led to road closures, littering, excessive noise nuisance from cars , car occupants using drugs in view of residents, ‘car bars’ on roads, prostitution, to name a few.

Residents described the effect on them as ‘like a living hell’, being unable to sleep, in some cases taking ‘sleeping pills’ to cope with the resulting noise. The resident’s speak of them and their families being offered drugs and being worried about their own and the safety of their families, impact on children who are trying to sleep at night or who witnessed the anti-social behaviour taking place on their doorstep. All of this undermined the licensing objectives at the time and will undermine them moving forward if the same management team continue to operate the venue with the predictable late-night congregation even taking into account any difference in the late night economy in Shoreditch.

The judge was also struck by the number of residents who attended the appeal hearing. Even though Jonathan was the sole witness  who could speak at the appeal - the presence of the community was noted and impressed on the judge the level of concern.

Hackney Council has sent us the full judgement - attached  below with some comments from the council.

Thank you to all those of you who have submitted statements and appeared at hearings over the years. 

CARGO / VIADUCT - NEW LICENCE APPLICATION JAN 2025

COMMITTEE HEARING 13 MARCH 2025