Friday offered a second sitting. Barely half an hour after the Belonging launch wound down, the West Wing of Guildhall was filling with representatives of the City’s hospitality liveries — and, for good measure, all four of its Ale-Conners.
The gathering was convened by Deputy John Fletcher, Chair of the City’s Licensing Committee, with a straightforward ambition: a standing dialogue between the Corporation’s licensing arm and the livery companies closest to the hospitality trade, so that the companies closest to the trade hear about licensing changes early and can pass them on. The Ale-Conners turned out at full strength.
Top of the agenda was the Corporation’s new draft Licensing Policy, whose public consultation had opened at six o’clock that very morning. The licensing team walked us through it: a policy that aims to keep real protection for residents and to strengthen public safety, from tackling violence against women and girls and drink spiking to accessibility and assistance dogs, while supporting the City’s businesses; that prefers evidence and street-by-street judgement to blanket standardised hours; and that, for the first time, names the livery companies as part of the City’s civic life. With more than two hundred alfresco licences now live across the Square Mile, the streetscape this policy governs is changing fast, and the team were clear that they want views from every quarter: operators, residents, liveries and City workers alike. If that includes you, the consultation is open — the office will share it through every livery network it can reach, and residents’ views count as much as anyone’s.
We were also given a proper look at Safety Thirst, the Corporation’s long-running accreditation scheme for licensed premises: annual multi-agency inspections, a code of best practice, an awards night, and a meaningful discount on the late-night levy for accredited venues trading after midnight. The Square Mile holds roughly 980 licences and only eighty or ninety premises currently carry the accreditation, so there is headroom — if you run a venue, it deserves a look, and there was even talk of livery halls joining the scheme.
Then came the maps, at which point regular readers will sense where this is heading. The Corporation’s data team demonstrated their interactive licensing map, which layers every licence in the City — hours, tables and chairs, safe havens and more — over a nightly feed from the licensing register. It is a serious piece of work: a single source of truth, which is exactly what good decisions get built on. I may have mentioned that I keep a pub map of my own, along with the walking trails that turn a list of historic pubs into a printable tour; a working session with the data team has duly been agreed, to see what the two exercises can lend each other and how both can help people find and enjoy the City’s pubs safely.
My thanks to Deputy Fletcher for convening the morning. A useful session, and I will share what I learned with the livery companies of the Cask Group.
The pub map lists all 180-odd licensed pubs and bars in the Square Mile, if you want to see the streetscape the consultation covers.