A petition to ‘save MOTH Club’ has topped 30,000 signatures after planning applications for two blocks of flats were submitted - something campaigners say threatens the future of the venue.
The iconic Hackney venue has received support from across the music and nightlife scene, with the likes of Lewis Capaldi, Tame Impala and Green Day all backing a Change.org petition opposing the proposed developments.
One of the blocks would have balconies directly overlooking MOTH’s smoking area and will back onto the stage wall, which club operators say will lead to noise complaints and limit the venue’s ability to run as normal.
MOTH's programmer and founder, Keith Miller, accused the council of offering ‘zero communication’. He told East End Review: “All we’re asking from Hackney Council is a fair and transparent process for MOTH Club, one of London’s most legendary grassroots venues.
“Throughout this planning process, we’ve been met with zero clarity, zero communication, and zero fairness. We deserve better, and so does every venue fighting to keep culture alive in this city. This isn’t just about MOTH Club; it’s about protecting the future of live music in London and beyond.”
The 300-capacity venue has hosted household names including Lady Gaga, Dave Grohl and Christine & The Queens, but is also a place where up-and-coming musicians can play early gigs. Miller said emerging artists “rely on rooms like ours to take their first steps.”
MOTH Club first opened in 1972 as a servicemen’s club and has gone on to achieve international recognition on the music scene. However it still honours its roots, with new members still coming through its doors.
In 2015, it was taken over by local events agency LNZRT and revamped into a music and comedy space, now known for its stage’s distinctive gold ribbon curtains and shimmering ceiling – but its trades hall furnishings are mostly intact.
A number of celebrated artists have voiced their support for the venue, including Hot Chip frontman Alexis Taylor. He told East End Review: “It’s one of the great London venues.
“Some are very soulless and lacking in any real ‘vibe’; not so with the MOTH Club! Its original features have been left intact - it retains the feel of a venue from a bygone era, whilst being at the forefront of great music programming.
“Venues like this need to be supported and preserved, not torn down and replaced.”
Cumbia band Los Bitchos played some of their earliest shows at the club and remember them fondly. They told us: "MOTH Club is a beloved, unique and vital part of so many artists' development and must be protected as a place of historic cultural significance.
“So many independent music venues have closed in recent years and MOTH Club continues to beat at the heart of a community that won’t give up on it despite the planning applications that constantly threaten its existence.
“It’s genuinely impossible to imagine the London music scene without it."
Shoreditch-raised hip-hop star Kojey Radical will play a special support gig at the Valette Street venue on 18 December. The Mercury Prize-nominated artist will be supported by local hip-hop, jazz and soul collective, The Silhouettes Project, at the event.
Tickets are now sold out after they were given out for free to supporters who sent an email to Hackney Council urging them to protect the independent venue from potential closure.
The concert is part of the Stomping Grounds series, sponsored by footwear brand Kickers in partnership with Save Our Scene. The campaign supports the Music Venue Trust (MVT) in safeguarding the future of UK grassroots music venues.
The threat of closure is being felt throughout the UK’s late-night industry. Nearly 800 businesses in the sector have been forced to close over the past five years, according to the Night Time Industries Association (NTIA). This represents a 26.4% reduction overall.
In February this year, the MVT warned two UK grassroots music venues were closing every week, with nearly half (43.8%) operating at a loss in the last year.
MVT said of MOTH: “The council has sidelined the Agent of Change principle, ignored expert evidence, and withheld a key acoustic report from an FOI request while relying on assessments that independent specialists describe as ‘useless’.
“If Hackney side-steps national policy here, it sets a catastrophic precedent: any grassroots venue in the UK could be placed in the same position by developers who choose not to mitigate noise. This isn’t just a MOTH Club issue. It’s a test of whether planning protections for cultural spaces have any real weight."
The planning applications were submitted by Stephen Davy Peter Smith Architects on behalf of the applicants. They include five flats and ground floor commercial unit at 2 Morning Lane, and a six-storey building with seven flats and ground floor commercial unit at 6 Morning Lane.
A Hackney Council spokesperson said: “We are proud of Hackney’s nightlife and live music scene, and recognise the vital role venues like MOTH club play in our borough.
“The proposals for a new development close to MOTH have been put forward by a private developer on land that they own. Like with every council, Hackney’s planning authority has a duty to consider any planning application against planning policies, and we are unable to comment on the proposals while this process takes place.
“These planning policies include a clear ‘agent of change’ principle, which places the onus on a new development to mitigate for noise, rather than existing venues to change how they operate.”
Caroline Woodley, Mayor of Hackney, said: “In Hackney we’re proud of our nightlife and live music and performance scene, and we know just how vital spaces like MOTH Club are for the communities in our borough.
“I have not seen any planning proposals that suggest the closure of MOTH Club. As far as I’m concerned MOTH Club will remain a treasured space for the Hackney community to gather.
“The proposals for new development close to MOTH Club have been put forward by private developers on land that they own. Like every council, Hackney’s planning authority has a duty to consider planning applications against planning policies, and unfortunately the Council cannot comment on proposals whilst this process is occurring.
“However, Hackney’s planning policies include an ‘agent of change’ principle, which places responsibility on a new development to mitigate for noise, rather than existing venues to change how they operate.”
Stephen Davy Peter Smith Architects have been contacted for comment.
Note: This article was updated at 4.20pm on Friday, 12 December to add a statement from Mayor of Hackney, Caroline Woodley.
