Residents of luxury South London flats have successfully fought off plans to turn railway arches opposite their homes into late-night drinking venues.
Southwark Council rejected the Arch Company's application to convert four disused arches on America Street, Borough, into bars and restaurants that would open until 1am at weekends.
The victory comes as welcome news to residents of America House, where flats sell for up to £2million. Local Liberal Democrat councillor David Watson backed their campaign.
"The number of bars and licensed venues in Borough and Bankside has ballooned along with antisocial behaviour, noise and disruption," Watson said. "This application could have added four more bars right outside the bedroom windows of neighbouring residents."
The Arch Company, which manages over 900 arches in the borough, had invested £2.5 million converting the former car dealerships into "state of the art leisure venues". They argued late licences would attract better commercial tenants after receiving lower-than-expected rental offers.
James Anderson, representing the company, attempted to ease concerns. He said: "The word 'bar' is slightly emotive and perhaps gives the impression of lots of blokes standing drinking pints. But of course the trendier version of that is the much more relaxed seated ambience."
However, resident Helen Green dismissed this argument: "I take exception to one of the earlier people saying 'oh it wouldn't matter because it would be more wine bar than pub'. It doesn't matter if it's a drunk person on wine or a drunk person on beer."
Fellow resident Alex Brown added: "I think the prospect of having four licensed premises with sliding doors and potentially 480 people about 30 to 50ft away from our bedroom windows is not acceptable."
The licensing committee, chaired by Cllr Renata Hamvas, will email their full decision to participants within a week.
