A Highbury shop wants to sell alcohol until 2am, one of three bids before Islington's licensing sub-committee on Tuesday. Residents have filed 28 objections.

A convenience store on Highbury Park wants to sell alcohol until 2am on Friday and Saturday nights. It is one of three alcohol licence decisions Islington councillors take on Tuesday evening, and between them the three have drawn objections from 28 residents and one local business.

Licensing Sub-Committee A meets at 6.30pm on Tuesday 15 September in Committee Room 4 at the Town Hall on Upper Street. The agenda and the full case papers are published.

All three applications run into the same policy. Islington’s Licensing Policy 2023 to 2027 carries a borough-wide special policy on alcohol sold to take away. Once objections are received, it creates a presumption that such applications “will normally be refused or subject to certain limitation” unless the applicant can show there will be no negative cumulative impact. The same policy sets framework hours for off-licences of 8am to 11pm, seven days a week, and 10am to 11pm where premises sit in or near what the council calls a high-risk area.

Chart comparing the council's framework hours for off-licences, 8am to 11pm, with the three applications: Highbury Daily Market seeking 8am to 2am Thursday to Saturday, Mulkern Food and Wine seeking 8am to 11pm, and River and Green seeking 9am to 1.45am on Friday and Saturday
What each applicant has asked for, against the council's own framework hours for off-licences. Latest closing time shown for each. Graphic by Islington Today.
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Highbury Daily Market, 108 Highbury Park

The shop has been licensed since 2005, when it was Shivas Newsagent. The current business was taken over in March 2026. It applied in July to vary the licence so that both alcohol sales and opening hours run from 8am to 2am, every day.

After talking to the police, the applicant cut that back. Sunday to Wednesday would now end at midnight. The 2am close on Thursday, Friday and Saturday stands. The agent’s case is that trading patterns in the area already run later than the current licence allows, and that the existing conditions are enough.

Four residents objected. Their points are about dispersal rather than the shop itself:

  • customers gathering and talking on the pavement after buying
  • taxis and private hire vehicles arriving and leaving through the night
  • litter, bottles and broken glass
  • the difference, on a residential street, between closing at about 10.30pm and trading to 2am

One objector wrote that the change “would materially change the character of the premises from a relatively late evening shop to a late night operation”. Another said the disturbance would not stay outside the shop, but would follow customers into the surrounding streets.

The report also records the premises licence being suspended for two months in 2019. Trading Standards ran a test purchase on 4 June that year, the shop sold alcohol to someone under 18, and the suspension followed at a hearing that August. Neither the police nor any other responsible authority has objected to the current application. The council’s noise team withdrew its objection after conditions were agreed.

Mulkern Food and Wine, 31 Mulkern Road, N19

This is a new licence application for a shop in Hillrise ward, asking to sell alcohol to take away from 8am to 11pm daily. Those are exactly the council’s framework hours, and it still drew the most objections of the three: 17 residents and a local business.

Their objections are about the area rather than the hours. Residents point to a Nisa on Mulkern Road itself and a Londis on Hornsey Road, both selling alcohol until 11pm, with more outlets around Archway and Holloway Road. One objection raises the proximity of Shelter From The Storm, the night shelter on Holland Walk, and argues the concern is for vulnerable people already in the area rather than against them. The council’s own policy lists proximity to drug and alcohol services, to mental health services and to vulnerable adult supported accommodation among the things that make somewhere a high-risk area, where the framework hours tighten to 10am to 11pm. The report does not say the council has designated this location as one.

The case papers carry a second problem that has nothing to do with alcohol. The council’s planning officers report that the unit’s established lawful use is a hot food takeaway. Turning it into a convenience store “would constitute a material change of use requiring planning permission”.

The only recent application on the property, P2025/2419/FUL, sought to convert the takeaway into a one-bedroom flat. It was withdrawn. There are no open enforcement cases. A licence and a planning permission are separate consents, and the sub-committee is not a planning body, but it is the kind of detail we track in our Islington planning coverage.

The applicant’s agent says the characterisation of the business as an off-licence is wrong. It will be a general convenience store selling fruit, vegetables, groceries and refrigerated goods, with the liquor area confined to one part of the floor plan. The applicant has accepted the police conditions in full. They include:

  • no beer, lager or cider above 6.5% ABV, apart from a carve-out for artisan and craft products
  • no spirit miniatures below 50cl, with limited exceptions
  • Challenge 25, a written refusals and incident log, and CCTV kept for at least 31 days
  • signage at the exit asking customers to leave quietly

Both the police and the noise team withdrew their objections once those were agreed.

River and Green, 203 Green Lanes, N16

The third application is on the Islington side of Green Lanes, in Highbury ward. The shop is already licensed. Permission was granted in January 2023 to sell alcohol to take away between 9am and 11pm, Monday to Sunday.

The new application is considerably wider. It asks for:

  • alcohol both on and off the premises until 12.45am Sunday to Thursday
  • alcohol until 1.45am on Friday and Saturday, and on days before a bank holiday
  • late night refreshment from 11pm to the same closing times
  • opening from 6am, until 1am or 2am depending on the day

Seven residents objected. They describe problems they say are already happening, not hypothetical ones: litter, groups gathering, noise, and vehicles parked so that people have to step into the road to get past. The premises has added two ventures this year, a sandwich and hot drink counter in May and a burger operation a week later.

The applicant’s consultant says there has been one recorded issue. It was a 16-minute run of complaints on 29 May, during the launch event for the burger operation, after a DJ turned the music up. The officer sent to investigate did not report a noise disturbance.

The noise team withdrew its objection after the applicant accepted an unusual condition. If a noise or odour complaint is substantiated, the premises drops back to an 11pm close until the problem is fixed to officers’ satisfaction. The police did not object.

What it means for you

If you objected, the hearing is the point at which you can speak. Anyone who made a relevant representation is a party to it under the Licensing Act 2003 hearings regulations, and may attend and address the sub-committee. The meeting is held in public at the Town Hall.

If you did not, these three are already past the consultation stage and you cannot add an objection now. The route for anything that goes wrong later is a licence review, which is what Trading Standards used against the Highbury Park shop in 2019 and what produced the two-month suspension. A review can be brought by a responsible authority or by any other person, including a resident.

If you are going, note that the streets around the Town Hall are controlled. Our guide to parking in Islington has the bays, the hours and the charges.

Each case is decided on its own merits. The sub-committee can grant an application, grant it with different hours, add conditions of its own, or refuse it. The presumption in the off-sales policy is rebuttable, not absolute, and the report on each case asks the councillors simply to determine it. Islington charges £190 for these applications, and the fee is not refunded if the answer is no.

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