The Ministry of Sound nightclub today made a last minute plea to Boris Johnson to protect it from the threat of closure.
The club has spent four years fighting proposals for a huge housing development to be built just yards away from it.
If the plans get approved, the club fear noise complaints from new neighbours will threaten its 24-hour licence and end in its closure.
Today, a fortnight before the Mayor makes a decision on the plans, the club, in Gaunt Street close to Elephant and Castle, has put forward a new solution that could help the club and development co-exist.
It is asking him to put safeguards in place to ensure it can make the same amount of noise it does currently.
Developer Oakmayne wants to build 255 apartments and 80 affordable homes on the Eileen House site, currently a disused tower block.
Earlier this year architects Allies & Morrison submitted revised plans for the building, with acoustically sealed windows, and partly sealed winter gardens in place of open balconies.
Lohan Presencer, chief executive of Ministry of Sound Group, said they will be asking Mr Johnson to ensure a legally binding guarantee that the club can continue to make noise at the same levels it always has done and a legal agreement that delivers the “acoustic protection” that has been promised by the developers.
He said: “The legal agreement guarantees that everything that is being promised, such as these acoustically sealed windows, is not reneged on at a later date. The second thing we want is a legal mechanism put in place to ensure the current noise levels will be able to lawfully continue as they are.”
In an open letter to Mr Johnson, published in today’s Standard, the club says: “Ministry of Sound has been at the heart of London for a quarter of a century. We’ve earned our right to stay here.
“Over the past decade all of London’s big clubs have closed as a result of redevelopment. We’re the last man standing.
“Do you want to bring the shutters down on nightclubs in London for good?
“Please Boris, do the right thing for London, don’t stop the music.”
A planning application by Oakmayne was rejected by Southwark council in October 2011 — against the advice of the council’s planning officers — before being called in by Mr Johnson for mayoral review in December that year. In five previous cases when the Mayor has called in developments, he has ruled in favour of them going ahead.
On November 19, he will hear from both parties and decide on whether to give the plans at Eileen House the go-ahead.
No one from Oakmayne was available to speak but in the past it has said it could “co-exist” with the club.
