CLEEVE WORKSHOPS (UNIT 10)

PLANNING APPLICATION PA/2025/1297

10 Cleeve Workshops was granted a licence to operate as a bar in 2022. No residents were notified so were unable to object. However the bar lacks the correct planning permission to operate legally, so has submitted a planning application for change of use. 

Residents can submit objections now to stop this unit operating as a bar. 

The deadline to object - Thursday 14 August 

Email: planning@hackney.gov.uk.

bcc: boundary.tra@gmail.com

Subject OBJECTION to PA/2025/1297 

Site address: Umbrella Bar, Unit 10, Cleeve Workshops, Boundary St, E2 7JD

Remember to give your name, address and postcode when objecting.

Some things you might want to say:

• as a residential neighbourhood already facing huge pressure and disturbance from the Shoreditch Night Time Economy, granting permissions for bars to operate in residential estate courtyards is a worrying precedent.

• Night Time Economy use impacts a large number of residents -there are around 50 flats overlooking the courtyard, which is quiet and unused at night apart from the activities of No. 10. If you are personally disturbed by noise from the bar, you can mention that.

• off-licence use is as problematic as on-licence as there are 15 small units in the shared courtyard that can use the bar as a convenience when entertaining visitors in the evenings.

• if planning permission is granted to allow the use of No. 10 it will set a precedent for the other 15 workshops to apply for bar use, and also endanger Sunbury and Marlow workshops.

• the courtyard has been previously gated and locked at night, but public access to the bar has resulted in the gate being left open which increases security risks. The courtyard is not intended for public access and activities in the evenings.

• There is a lack of small affordable workshops in the area and further loss by granting change of use should be resisted

You can make your letter short and personal - tell the planners how the existing bar is causing nuisance to the residents and how you fear that an expansion of this type of use into the courtyard will make living here intolerable.

UMBRELLA BAR - TIMELINE

DECEMBER 2021

A premises licence is granted for 10 Cleeve Workshops to function as a bar [PREM/2021/0123]. Local residents were not notified or consulted. In the absence of any objections, the local authority has no choice but to grant the licence.

FEBRUARY 2022

Residents discover that the premises are being used as a bar and write to Hackney councillors, licensing and planning officers. Hackney Council starts a planning breach investigation [2022/0061/ENF].

MARCH 2023

A planning enforcement notice is served on 10 Cleeve Workshops. 

JUNE 2023

Umbrella Bar launch an appeal against the planning enforcement.

JULY 2023

Boundary TRA submits a detailed representation

JANUARY 2024

The Appeal is successful on technical grounds. The enforcement is quashed, but the planning use class still disallows use as a bar. [Appeal Decision]

24 JULY 2025

Umbrella Bar make a planning application for change of use class to permit bar use.