A showdown looms over a bid by a bar and venue to keep on selling alcohol and playing music later at night in Reading, with neighbours already complaining about disturbance.
The Market House is a bar and venue in Market Place. Opening in 2019, a redevelopment saw the former Lloyds Bank in Market Place transformed into a bar, eatery, games venue and hotel.
Inside, visitors can try their hand at ping-pong, shuffleboard and karaoke, and enjoy pizzas and drinks.
The venue is run by The City Pub Group, which has a number of locations in London, Oxford, Bristol, Bath and other cities.
Market House is currently open from 3pm to 11pm Monday to Thursday, 12pm to 11pm on Fridays, 10am to 11pm on Saturdays and 12pm to 11pm on Sundays.
Last month, The City Pub Group applied to sell alcohol from 10am to 1am from Wednesday to Saturday, and 10am to 11pm from Sunday to Tuesday.
The company also applied to play recorded music from 11pm to 1am from Wednesday to Saturday.
Finally, the operators have applied to remove a current restriction that states that the roof terrace can only be open from 8am to 11pm.
However, the application for extended hours has faced an objection from Sykes Capital, the owners of Jacksons Corner, which itself was redeveloped to provide more than 35 apartments, Rosa’s Thai, Xpressions Hair and Beauty and an upcoming food centre.
Andrew Strong, the general counsel at Sykes Capital, wrote: “Our concern with the application is that the occupiers of our building already experience a negative impact as a result of Market House activities.
“Therefore, increasing the hours of both alcohol sales, but specifically playing of recorded music between 11pm to 1am will be extremely negative to the residential accommodation within our building.
“Furthermore, there are many other residential properties immediately surrounding the building in question and it does not therefore seem appropriate for the unit to be playing recorded music at such late hours in the night, without proper sound insulation measures.”
Mr Strong then argued that soundproofing from the ping pong area is currently inadequate due to its large glazed roof, which he claimed has ‘zero’ sound insulation.
The application received no objections from Reading Borough Council’s licensing department and Thames Valley Police, subject to conditions.
The extended hours bid is due to be decided at a licensing applications subcommittee meeting on Tuesday, April 29.
The current licence for activities at Market House was approved in December 2018.
The City Pub Group had applied to expand its rooftop bar the following year, but concerns were raised about an increase in noise disturbance.
