{"id":344033,"date":"2025-08-14T14:10:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-14T14:10:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/344033\/"},"modified":"2025-08-14T14:10:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-14T14:10:12","slug":"police-raise-concerns-about-violence-antisocial-behaviour-and-drug-use-at-north-west-london-bar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/344033\/","title":{"rendered":"Police raise concerns about “violence, antisocial behaviour and drug use” at North-West London bar"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Metropolitan Police have raised concerns about reports of \u201cviolence, antisocial behaviour, and drug use\u201d at a North London bar. The owners are looking to sell alcohol until 2:30am at weekends but officers suggest the incidents are happening \u201clate in the evening and early hours of the morning\u201d and want the council to refuse the application.<\/p>\n

Recanto Kings, a Brazilian bar and restaurant on the Sapcote Trading Centre in Willesden, has applied to extend the hours it can sell alcohol and provide entertainment to 1:30am on weekdays and 2:30am on weekends.<\/p>\n

However, the police are \u201cstrongly opposing\u201d the plan due to the venue already breaching its existing licence conditions and receiving reports of a number of serious incidents. Officers have already issued the bar with a closure order following an inspection last month and believe extending its hours \u201cwill only allow more incidents to take place\u201d.<\/p>\n

Recanto Kings was initially permitted to sell alcohol until 11pm seven days a week in June of 2024. However, less than a month after being granted the licence the venue was issued with a warning letter by Brent Council<\/a> due to complaints by local residents. The bar was then allowed to extend its hours until midnight during the week and 1:30am at the weekends in October, 2024, after which the problems appear to have escalated.<\/p>\n

Since this variation was granted there have been a number of incidents that \u201cdo raise concern\u201d, according to the police. Since February, 2025, officers have been called to the bar on nine separate occasions to deal with issues including fights, people selling drugs, and threats.<\/p>\n

On one occasion, a woman called the police alleging that someone had attacked her in the premises, whilst there have also been more violent incidents, including two men threatening another with a knife and someone being struck in the head with a bottle, according to the police.<\/p>\n

Officers then issued the premises with a closure order last month (July 26) after witnessing a number of licensing breaches during an inspection two weeks earlier. The breaches included customers ordering directly from the bar when it\u2019s supposed to be table service only, tables drinking without having ordered food first, staff not properly trained, and alcoholic drinks consumed at tables set up outside of the licensable area.<\/p>\n

In a document submitted against the application, PC Brendon McInnes states: \u201cPolice strongly object to the variation of the premises licence until the venue can demonstrate that they can run the venue correctly and in accordance with their licence. As seen with the incidents listed, they take place late in the evening or early hours of the morning. By extending the hours this will only allow more incidents to take place and will undermine the licensing objectives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brent Council\u2019s licensing team had already issued the venue with a warning notice following a number of complaints by local residents. They included reports of someone being run over, overcrowding, people shouting and screaming until 1am, glasses being taken outside, and loud music being played every night.<\/p>\n

According to the council, reports submitted to its noise complaint app described the noise as \u201cunbearable\u201d and is \u201clike living next door to a nightclub\u201d, with residents unable to sleep as the music is \u201cliterally vibrating my home\u201d.<\/p>\n

The application will be reviewed by Brent Council\u2019s Alcohol and Entertainment Licensing Sub-Committee at a meeting later this week (August 19) where a decision on whether to approve the extended hours will be made.<\/p>\n

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SIGN UP below<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Metropolitan Police have raised concerns about reports of \u201cviolence, antisocial behaviour, and drug use\u201d at a North…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":344034,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[2796,748,393,4884,7833,257,12,63221,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-344033","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-brent","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-harrow-online","13":"tag-london","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-north-west-london","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115027524047940343","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=344033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344033\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/344034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=344033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=344033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=344033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}