CMYK Bar Faces Closure After Four Hospitalised During Brawl
Licensing committee may choose to take away licence permanently
CMYK Bar . Picture: CMYK
December 19, 2022
Wimbledon’s first LGBT+ bar has been stripped of its licence after staff failed to call Met Police when an “extremely violent fight” broke out on a Monday night in November.
The action was taken after the incident at CMYK Bar on 22 November, which allegedly saw a man hit over the head with a bottle and another knocked unconscious.
At around 2am, police claim they arrived to find blood on the pavement, doors and windows of the bar in The Broadway. They were met with a group of men who claimed another group had started a fight with them.
According to police, CCTV footage showed the fight in full, with glass bottles being used as weapons. One man was said to be knocked unconscious and was out cold for more than a minute while he was kicked and the fight carried on around him.
The Met Police report, which was considered by Merton Council, said there was one member of security trying to break up the fight but that no other members of staff stepped in to help.
While police officers were watching the footage, another altercation broke out. They found a man whose face and head was covered in blood who said he had been hit with a bottle.
The report said, “His friends were heard to ask who done it and that he was going to ‘carve him up’. Other officers who attended the call had stopped two males who were involved in the incident not far from the scene, one of which had a cut to his hand which was bleeding heavily. No members of staff called police or an ambulance, nor did they offer any first aid to people with serious injuries.”
It is the second time this year the venue, which is Wimbledon’s first gay bar, is up for a Merton Council licence review. In July, the bar’s owner vowed it would close after it was forced to close earlier every weekend after a string of incidents.
One of the conditions was that no glass should be used at the bar. Despite this “serious injuries” were caused with glass bottles leading police to believe “the premises licence holder [has] total disregard for the extra conditions imposed”.
After the latest incident, Merton Council’s licensing sub-committee met on 29 November which decided to suspend the bar’s licence to serve alcohol.
This was an “interim step” and the committee will meet again on Tuesday (20 December) to decide whether the venue should permanently lose its licence.
Steve Sotiriou, who owns the bar, claimed in July that he would be closing in a matter of weeks. He said, “I tried to give Wimbledon a bar for the gay community. I tried to do my best. If the police and people in Wimbledon don’t want that bar then I will close it.”
Mr Sotiriou did not wish to comment on the loss of the licence.
A police spokesperson said, “Officers attended and arrested a 28-year-old man and a 30-year-old man nearby on suspicion of affray. They were subsequently de-arrested and taken to a West London hospital by police with non-life-threatening injuries.
“The London Ambulance Service took two other men, aged 27 and 21, to a hospital in Surrey with non-life-threatening injuries. The incident is being investigated by officers from the South West Basic Command Unit.”
Enquiries continue and anyone with information can call police on 101 quoting CAD 381/22NOV or call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
Tara O'Connor - Local Democracy Reporter