‘£9 cocktails won’t deter Joe Public’ at Zetter Townhouse cocktail bar

Published: 18th March, 2011
by TERRY MESSENGER

PRICES will be so high and the decor so elegant at a new hotel owned by a member of the Sainsbury’s dynasty that poorer, casual customers will “run a mile”, Islington councillors were told this week.

They were considering an application for a licence from Mark Sainsbury, son of former supermarket chain chairman Lord Sainsbury to sell alcohol until 2am at the Zetter Townhouse. 

Lawyer Tony Edwards was trying to reassure them that only well off, quiet and well-behaved people will drink in a cocktail bar at the Townhouse in Clerkenwell, where Mark Sainsbury is managing director and owner.

He was speaking after nearby residents ex­pressed fears that their lives will be disrupted by noisy drinkers at the establishment in St John’s Square.

He said: “Just to indicate the sort of level of people we are looking for, the cocktails would be of the order of £9 each.”

But local residents said £9 “wasn’t very much” and, even so, rich people could be just as loud as poor.

The row broke out at a meeting of Islington’s licensing committee on Monday over an application to allow the Townhouse to serve alcohol until 2am all week.

The Zetter Hotel opened seven years ago and its management recently acquired two elegant Georgian town houses across the street.

They are opening a new 13-bedroom sister hotel, the Zetter Townhouse, in April which will house the cocktail bar. Representing Zetter, Mr Edwards described the existing establishment as “a highly regarded, award-winning hotel aiming for the better class of market”.

The Townhouse would follow suit “with the sort of facilities you would expect a good class hotel to have including, in particular, a cocktail bar.”

The decor would be subdued, elegant and “entirely consistent with a very attractive historic building”. He emphasised: “What we don’t want is the casual person walking down the street. I should think they will take one look at the place and run a mile.”

He said the Townhouse would aim to cater for guests plus “local residents and businessmen” and discourage noisy drunken people.

Mark Sainsbury told the committee the business would fail if the cocktail bar was too noisy. “People come to hotels to sleep and not to be disturbed. If we wake up our guests every night we won’t have a hotel,” he said.

Neighbour David Taylor, of Jerusalem Passage, who shares a party wall with the Townhouse, told the committee that another nearby hotel charged £14 for a cocktail “and it’s heaving every night so the cost of the cocktails is something which should not be a material consideration”. He said £9 wasn’t expensive anyway and warned that businessmen can be loud and drunk as well.

Lucy Fawcett, also of Jerusalem Passage, feared: “I’ll be learning how to sleep between 2am and 6am. ”

Councillors on the committee voted to award the Townhouse its 2am licence, with Labour member Wally Burgess commenting: “This isn’t quite the usual type of licensed premises, particularly if it’s not just open for Johnny Public to walk in.”