Two proposals for a new block of flats on Morning Lane have been submitted to Hackney Council
Independent venues under threat is becoming an all-too-familiar tale in the capital; the Mayor of London’s 2019 Cultural Infrastructure Plan reported that in the last decade, 35% of grassroots venues closed, and the Music Venue Trust has estimated that across the UK, an average of two venues a week shuttered in 2023. Hackney’s MOTH Club is the latest venue at risk thanks to new planning proposals for the development of flats on Morning Lane.
As well as running as an ex-serviceperson’s club since the 70s, over the last decade MOTH has become a hub for live music, comedy and club nights, weaving itself into the fabric of Hackney. The space has provided a platform for new acts and bands, like King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, Dry Cleaning, Shame, Amyl and the Sniffers, Lapsley, Biig Piig, Caroline Polachek and IDLES (who have since gone onto headline Wide Awake, the festival founded by the same team that operates MOTH), to break into the mainstream, and it’s also hosted huge names like Lady Gaga and Jarvis Cocker.
The development plans submitted to Hackney Council (deliberately split into two parts so as to avoid the obligation to include social housing) would see residences back on the area where MOTH’s stage is and have balconies overlooking the smoking area, which would seriously impact the venue’s ability to operate. As MOTH’s programmer Keith Miller says, “you’re talking about a 3am club night running inches away from someone’s house, a smoking area that’s literally attached to housing.” The development would also mean that tht pre-event queue (already moved once to be further away from existing flats in the area, which dramatically cut down noise complaints), will be going round these new residences, “so ultimately there’s gonna be more noise complaints, especially late at night.”
If the plans get approved, the outlook for the venue is bleak. “Our late licence would be under pretty extreme pressure, within a year I would say,” estimates Keith. “And if we lose our late licence, the venue will no longer be operable because you make most of your money in the week between 10pm and 3am. If those hours were to be cut, the viability of the venue would be really low.”
Keith and the MOTH team want to be clear in their support of additional housing but “the reality is that flats and music venues should not be dovetailed together like this”, especially when there’s an expanse of shops, where luxury outlet Hackney Walk was just further up Morning Lane, lying empty.
Losing MOTH would be a huge blow for the neighbourhood. As Keith rightly points out, a big part of why Hackney has been regenerated is the arts, “it’s been rebuilt on nightlife and it would be a real shame for nightlife to take the brunt of the gentrification.”
The Night Time Industries Association and the Music Venue Trust is already lending MOTH Club its support and the venue has an ongoing dialogue with Hackney Council (who understand that MOTH is a place of significant interest to the public) regarding the planning proposals. If you want to help you can write to Hackney Council and also sign and share the below petition.
Key Information
Address | Valette Street, London E9 6NU
For more information | @mothclub