Horniman Museum and Gardens have recently applied for a licence for entertainment and serving alcohol for up to 15,000 people. We contacted the Horniman to ask for more details about this application. Here's what they said:
The Horniman currently has a licence to provide what is termed “regulated entertainment” this means that we can show plays, films, have live music, dance and things of a similar description. The licence allows for “the provision of entertainment facilities” for making music, dancing, and entertainment of a similar description. Our current licence also allows for the sale of alcohol for consumption on the premises at certain times and we are applying to change these times to enable us to sell alcohol through the shop, cafe and at some events.
Our current licence is complex in terms of the different hours for which different activities are licensed, and we now need to update it to include our new ‘Gardens Pavilion’ which will sometimes be used for the licensable activities referred to above.
We plan to base our programme around the traditional size of event we have been running for many years. Typically over the last decade our larger events have attracted 5,000-10,000 people over the course of the day. This year we have World City Music Village planned for June (5-10,000 people), the Big Dance Picnic planned for 8 July (2-5,000 people) and a community launch for the Gardens planned for 31 May (approximately 2,000 people).
We have had experience of one very large scale event in the summer of 2009 (attended by approximately 20,000 people) which we believe was too large for our site and facilities. We have no intention of staging such very large scale events in the future.
We are not planning events attracting over 10,000 in the course of the day, but we have applied for up to 14,999 on site ( licence bands go up in units of 5,000) to ensure that just a few people over this target do not put us in breach of our licence.
We very much hope that local people will enjoy and participate in our summer programme this year.
2 comments:
I have lived in Westwood Park for the last 20 years and seen the Horniman "green" disappearing year after year. It is spring but there are no flowers in the gardens! Only more buildings and expensive projects eating all their finances. And now a cafe' selling alcohol inviting a crowd of people in an area which is not bigger enough to accommodate them all, plus the inconvenience created to residents in the area. Not every park and museums in London organise these events to make money! When I moved in the area, the place was a quiet place to go to be in peace with nature, now is becoming a nightmare! Gardeners on jeeps driving around at all times during the day, site works in progress, areas access denied to public, library closed, animals disappeared. And yet we have already given the Horniman money through the lottery funds. How much and what else do they need to function? Is it becoming an open air pub? Obviously the Forest Society will approve the project because many traders in the area will benefit too, but what about Mr. Horniman's pledge to leave the place to Londoners for their enjoyment, peace and quiet. Is it drinking alcohol in the sun on the grass? Is this the new Glastonbury they wish to create?
I think the improvements in progress are going to make the Horniman gardens even better than they were before. I have 2 small children, and my family and I go at least twice a week - it is the single most fantastic resource in the area.
Everyone accepts the Jerk Cookout's popularity far exceeded expectation and became too big for the venue, but it was still a fantastic event and smaller, more manageable fun events in Hornimans are very welcome, especially if they bring money to the museum. I wish them the best of luck.
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