Tropix at 10 Clapham High Street wants to sell alcohol until 3.30am every day. Lambeth's licensing team says refuse it, and councillors decide on Wednesday.
Tropix, the bar in the old Royal Oak pub at 10 Clapham High Street, has asked Lambeth Council to let it sell alcohol until 3.30am every day. It currently has to stop at 2.30am.
A council licensing sub-committee will decide on Wednesday 30 September. The council’s own licensing team has told it to refuse.
The application is item 3 on the agenda for Wednesday’s evening sub-committee, which starts at 7pm and is being held on Microsoft Teams. The applicant is TPX25 Limited, which took over the premises licence in May 2025.
What Tropix is asking for
The application, reference 26/00086/PRMVAR, was received on 2 April. It asks for one extra hour, every day, on everything the venue is licensed to do. The officer’s report and the current licence set out the change.
| Activity | Licence now ends | Applied for |
|---|---|---|
| Sale of alcohol, on and off the premises | 02:30 | 03:30 |
| Recorded music, and music or dance entertainment | 02:30 | 03:30 |
| Late night refreshment (hot food and drink) | 02:30 | 03:30 |
| Live music | 00:00 | 01:00 |
| Indoor sporting events | 02:00 | 03:00 |
| Films | 03:00 | 04:00 |
| Opening hours | 03:00 | 04:00 |
The application form offers nothing new in return. Asked what extra steps it would take on crime, public safety, noise and children, the applicant wrote “No change” against every one.
How far past the council’s policy that is
Lambeth’s licensing policy names Clapham High Street as a district centre. For pubs, wine bars and other drinking places in a district centre, it recommends a latest finish of 1am on Friday and Saturday and midnight on other nights (Lambeth licensing policy, recommended hours).
The venue’s existing 2.30am licence is already beyond that. The application would put it two and a half hours past the policy at weekends and three and a half hours past it on weeknights.
The policy says those times are a guide, not a rule. An applicant who wants to go later is expected to give “detailed evidence” that it will not harm the licensing objectives.
Who has objected, and why
Two representations were made before the deadline of 30 April. Both are published with the agenda papers.
The council’s licensing authority recommends refusal. Its memo of 24 April says the hours “exceed those recommended in the Licensing Policy and are likely to adversely affect residents in the area”.
It also points to the lack of any new conditions. The memo says customers arriving that late “are likely to be individuals who have visited licensed premises, such as bars and nightclubs, in the area or are returning home, and may be intoxicated”.
Councillor Linda Bray, Labour councillor for Clapham Town ward since 2014, also objects. She says the venue has an outside area “where people queue and smoke and a lot of noise is created there”, close to several blocks of flats and the Clapham Road Estate.
“Clapham High Street suffers from high intoxication levels especially after midnight,” she wrote. She said later hours would put “additional strain on the police and wardens”, and raised the safety of women leaving venues late at night.
She also says the premises sits inside the Clapham High Street cumulative impact zone in the council’s policy. Where that applies, she wrote, longer hours should be refused unless the applicant shows they will cause no harm.
The police did not object. The report’s consultation table shows no response from the Met’s licensing unit, Environmental Health or the London Fire Brigade.
What the licence already requires
The current licence carries a long list of conditions. Among them:
- two SIA-licensed door supervisors on Friday and Saturday from 10.30pm until closing
- a full search of everyone entering after 10.30pm on Friday and Saturday
- CCTV covering every entrance, with recordings kept for 31 days
- windows and doors closed from midnight
- a noise limiter on the first-floor sound system, and no more than 30 people in that area
- no loudspeakers outside the building
The report also lists seven temporary event notices the venue has used this year. They allowed it to trade past its normal hours on nights including 31 January, 14 February, early April, 31 May and 30 August, several of them until 4.30am.
The street’s crime figures
Police.uk records 945 crimes within about 250 metres of the venue in the twelve months to July 2026. The most common were theft from the person (200), shoplifting (185) and violence and sexual offences (162) (data.police.uk).
Those figures cover a busy stretch of high street and its side streets. Police.uk does not record the time of day, so they say nothing about what happens after 2.30am, and nothing about this venue in particular.
What it means for you
- The window to object has closed. Representations had to be in by 30 April. Only the two parties who made them, and the applicant, can speak at the hearing.
- The sub-committee has three options under section 35 of the Licensing Act 2003: grant the hours as asked, grant them with extra conditions, or refuse.
- Either side can appeal. A decision on a variation can be appealed to the magistrates’ court within 21 days of notification, by the applicant or by anyone who made a representation (Licensing Act 2003, Schedule 5).
- Nothing changes this week either way. Until the council decides, the licence stays as it is, with alcohol sales ending at 2.30am.
If you live nearby and have problems with any licensed premises, Lambeth’s licensing team is on 020 7926 6108. Any “interested party” can apply for a licence review at any time, which is a separate process from this application.
We will report the decision when the council publishes it.
Also on Wednesday’s agenda
Two other applications are before the same sub-committee:
- Conuco, 14 Brixton Road (Oval ward), a restaurant asking to extend its hours for alcohol and late night refreshment (report).
- Venue Lab, 26 Leake Street, Waterloo, a new licence for a multi-use event space, including plays and films until 6am from Thursday to Saturday (report).
More on the high street: our Clapham planning news page and things to do in Clapham.
Sources: Lambeth Council Licensing Sub-Committee, 30 September 2026: agenda and main report, officer’s report for 26/00086/PRMVAR, Annexes B to E (licensing policy extract, application form, representations and current premises licence 25/00133/PRMTRN); data.police.uk street-level crime, August 2025 to July 2026; Licensing Act 2003.
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