Council imposes restrictions on Guy Ritchie’s pub
By ANIFriday, December 18, 2009
LONDON - British screenwriter Guy Ritchie’s pub has escaped closure after neighbours complained, but it now has restrictions imposed on it by the council.
Westminster City Council has imposed various working conditions on the Punchbowl in Mayfair, including customers not being allowed to drink outside after 8pm and smokers restricted to a certain area after that time.
The staff has also been told to make hourly checks outside for glasses and litter, after 70 complaints about rowdy drunken crowds were made in the past 18 months.
Ritchie, 41, whose Sherlock Holmes remake premiered in London this week, co-owns the pub.
The council arranged a hearing after it received a 23-page application from residents wanting to get the pub’s licence reviewed.
The three residents behind the application to get the licence reviewed were art dealer Alan Hobart, Canadian property tycoon William Shenkman and Meryl Caio.
“It has metamorphasised from a ye olde local English pub into something that’s really internationally recognised on the A-list party circuit and by those who would like to get some of the glamour of going to such a venue,” the Independent quoted their barrister Leo Charalambides as saying.
Residents had complained about noise levels, broken glass, and that crowds of up to 150 people spill out of the pub and drink in the middle of the road.
They also claimed that customers have urinated against local houses on the otherwise quiet Mayfair side street.
Charalambides said that pub regulars were members of the “leisure classes” who could afford to “cause a nuisance on seven days of the week”.
He claimed that the pub hosts live music acts, which Ritchie has mentioned in press interviews, despite not having a licence to do so.
“We are absolutely not against pubs. We are not even against the Punchbowl except that it has changed dramatically in its nature since the old historic building and activities that we were all familiar with before,” Ward councillor Glenys Roberts told the hearing.
Representing the pub, Julian Skeen said that Ritchie would have liked to be at the hearing but was busy working on his new film.
“He very much wanted to be here. You’ll see in the papers that he is thought to be a central figure for these premises,” he said.
Co-director of the pub Piers Adam, who attended the hearing, said that despite the problems they hoped to keep running the venue.
“It has been mine and Guy’s local for 10 years, and hopefully we’ll be there until we pop off,” he added. (ANI)
