The Sweet Tooth Café on Upper Richmond Road may sound charming and cosy, but residents living above it say there’s more bite than sweetness.
After months of sleepless nights and escalating confrontations, they’re fighting back against the café’s application for a 1am alcohol licence.
The breaking point came when a resident politely asked a group of six men at the cafe, close to local favourites Tried and True café and The Arab Boy pub, to keep the noise down in the early hours. Their response was chilling, according to a submission in the documents published [pdf] by Wandsworth Council:
“We forced Michael [the previous tenant] out. We can force you out.”
But this time, the café owners may have picked the wrong fight. When council environmental officers investigated the complaints, they discovered the residents weren’t exaggerating.
Caught red-handed at 1am
Senior Environmental Services Officer Rob Newby-Walker was conducting a routine noise investigation at 1.04am on June 7th when he experienced the problem firsthand. He witnessed “conversation noise from the number of people gathered in the premises which was coming up through the property and was intrusive in the resident’s bedroom as to be a nuisance, where it was felt it would impact on sleep.”
The kicker? There were only about a dozen people downstairs, and their behaviour “was not particularly excessive for a licenced venue.” The building’s poor sound insulation meant even normal conversation became a nightmare for anyone trying to rest above.
A neighbourhood in revolt
What started as individual complaints has snowballed into a community uprising. More than 20 residents have formally objected to the cafe’s application to sell alcohol until 1am and serve late-night food until 1:30am on weekends.
The horror stories mount in the official complaints [pdf]. One resident described how “we close all the windows and the noise permeates through our house. The music reverberates through our pillows.” They explained how their child “repeatedly cannot sleep due to the shouting and loud music and fighting well into the morning. It’s impacting his attention at school and he is suffering mentally as a result.”
Another complained of being “kept awake and any chance of sleep made impossible,” saying the prospect of regular weekend disturbances is “already causing me much distress and anxiety.” One complained about being repeatedly disturbed in the early hours – even up to 4am.
Many live in Ormonde Court, directly opposite the cafe, where “noise echoes through the courtyard of our block of flats,” forcing residents to keep windows closed even in summer heat.
Council’s brutal assessment
Environmental services hasn’t minced words. Officer Rob Newby-Walker concluded that “it would be inappropriate to grant the premises a licence as applied for here, beyond those times previously operated, unless improvements to the existing sound insulation can be made.”
His recommendation? Slash hours to “alcohol sales ceasing at 22.00 hours daily and the premises closing at 23.00 hours daily, with no provision of late night refreshment.”
The reason is stark: “the sound levels naturally produced by even a relatively small group of people drinking and socialising will cause a nuisance to the resident above due to poor levels of sound insulation between the properties.”
The success story next door
Meanwhile, just across Putney, another alcohol licence application is sailing toward approval – proving it can be done right.
Sadaf Express wants to breathe life into a unit that’s been empty for years at 7 Lower Richmond Road – on the same corner as Tequila Mockingbird and Putney Pies. This is “a new business” in premises that have “never held a premises licence,” seeking the same weekend 1am hours that Sweet Tooth is demanding.
The difference? When police raised concerns about the operating schedule not properly addressing “the prevention of crime and disorder licensing objectives,” applicant Naeem Sadegi quickly agreed to comprehensive conditions including CCTV, incident logs, and bans on selling single cans or open containers.
When Trading Standards wanted age verification measures, he immediately accepted notices at sales points, staff training, and Challenge 25 policies. The result? Just two neighbour complaints versus Sweet Tooth’s avalanche of opposition.
Judgment Day
Tuesday evening’s council should prove interesting [pdf]. At 7pm in Wandsworth Town Hall, the Licensing Sub-Committee will decide whether business ambition trumps residential sanity.
For Sweet Tooth Café, the evidence is damning. When environmental health officers witness disturbances firsthand and residents report threats, you’re fighting the council’s four key objectives: preventing crime and disorder, ensuring public safety, preventing public nuisance, and protecting children.
One application shows how to address official concerns through cooperation. The other demonstrates how to unite a neighbourhood – and environmental services – against you. The meeting starts at 7pm, with a live webcast for anyone wanting to watch democracy in action.
Correction. 10am. Monday 7 July. We changed the main image on this story from the one below after a number of readers contacted us to complain that it was too aggressive. We felt the image was appropriately satirical given the “Sweet Tooth” name but we take your point.
