Pub that ‘inspired’ EastEnders’ The Queen Vic may lose licence ‘after residents kept awake by Lisa Stansfield karaoke’

The pub believed to be the inspiration for EastEnders’s The Queen Vic faces losing its licence after “torturing” neighbours with late-night karaoke parties.

One resident, who recorded a diary of noise from The Queen’s Head, Limehouse, said she was kept awake by groups singing Lisa Stansfield hits, including All Around The World.

People living near the pub have been in a two-year row over complaints of loud singing and drinkers “screaming, shouting and fighting” outside.

Last year it had its opening hours cut to 11pm and was told to stop live music after several noise complaints.

But residents say the lock-ins, some running until 3.30am, have continued to make their lives a misery and claim the pub has flouted Covid laws.

Cynthia Grant, who kept the diary, said: “We should not be so regularly subject to the noise, stress and disturbance. It is reasonable to expect that we should be able to get to sleep, or sit in the living room, without having to listen unwillingly to nightly loud swearing and shouting, and the sound of noisy fights and arguments.

“It is like living opposite a permanent resident football crowd.”

Like all pubs, The Queen’s Head was shut for several months from March during lockdown but the problems restarted after pubs were given the green light to reopen on July 4, a Tower Hamlets licensing committee heard this week.

Pubs could open as long as they observed at least one metre of social distancing between customers and offered only table service.

Covid regulations state landlords must take “all reasonable measures” to stop singing and dancing on the premises by groups of customers and music should be limited to background noise.

On September 4, licensing officers said they witnessed a 70th birthday party with “20 to 30” people in the pub 15 minutes after its legal closing time, but revellers refused to let them in. Large gatherings are banned under rules to help stop the spread of the virus.

Calling for the licence to be revoked, Pc Mark Perry said: “What mitigating measures were put in place to prevent the spread of the disease?”

Police were called again on November 20, when pubs were banned from opening in the second lockdown, after neighbours reported “people drinking and making noise inside”.

Pc Chloe Corder said through a gap in the blinds she saw “two females of large build sat at the bar, drinking.” Barrister Sarah Le Fevre, on behalf of the pub, said the women were cleaners but told the committee it could not produce CCTV evidence to prove it.

She added that they did not deny there had been breaches of the licence. The committee will publish its decision next week.

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