Celebrity nightclub Aura faces closure over ‘crime and disorder’

 
Aura nightcub, in London's Mayfair, is members only - but £500 a year will get you in. auramayfair.com "NO FEE"
13 November 2013
WEST END FINAL

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A Mayfair nightclub popular with footballers and celebrities could be forced to close after failing in legal action against tough licensing restrictions which aimed to curb rowdy behaviour.

The Aura in St James’s Street has entertained guests including Rihanna, X Factor winner James Arthur, Drake, Ne-Yo, Tamara Ecclestone and Usher, but has been the subject of complaints from neighbours.

Westminister council says the club has become a focus of “crime and disorder” and pointed to spirits being left on tables so that clients “can drink direct from the bottle” as “a particular cause of drunkenness”. The police wanted the club’s licence revoked and the council’s licensing sub-committee imposed more than 20 conditions in August last year.

They include revellers having to drink champagne from plastic cups, music banned after 3am and the doors shut to guests promptly at midnight. But club owners, Merlot 73 Ltd, claimed that the conditions made it unviable.

Merlot 73 and club boss Alberto Barbieri claimed the conditions would result in closure, make staff unemployed and waste an investment of up to £2 million. Following complaints about late-night trouble from the St James’s Conservation Trust and others, Merlot 73’s appeal against the conditions was dismissed by a district judge in April.

In a last-ditch bid to save the club, Merlot 73 argued in the High Court that it had done all it could to keep unruly clients in check and had submitted to restrictions that would stop the trouble while enabling the business to continue.

But dismissing the appeal, Mr Justice Blair said complaints had continued and that there was a “significant public interest” that had to be protected.

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