Council Gives Itself Permission for More Events on St Paul's Green

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Previously only Oktoberfest was licensed for the area

Picture: London Oktoberfest

April 27, 2025

St Paul’s Green in Hammersmith will be welcoming more events after an application to vary the existing premises licence was approved. Hammersmith and Fulham Council, which is also the licensing authority, had sought to extend the hours events could be held on the green as well as remove a restriction limiting them to three days in October.

The local authority had written in its application that the proposal would provide ‘extra income into the council budget and choice of events for residents’.

The existing licence for St Paul’s Green, which is on Hammersmith Bridge Road by the flyover and St Paul’s Hammersmith Church, allows events between 5pm and 11pm on Thursday and Friday and 11am to 11pm on Saturday, though limited to the October days. The requested variation would see the limit removed, plus an extension of the hours to 11am to 11pm seven days a week.

Charlotte Dexter, on behalf of the Barclay Road Residents group, had objected to the variation ahead of Wednesday’s (23 April) Licensing Sub-Committee meeting.

In her representation she wrote, “In theory this might not sound too bad but in practice it could turn into all sorts of things that perhaps are not in the interest of crowd safety, public safety, safeguarding and thus the licensing objectives could be severely undermined and not promoted by either the licence holder or its third and fourth parties contracting out for the event management, event safety, etc.”

Licensing Compliance Officer Lorna McKenna had responded to the objection in a letter of her own, writing that the proposal would provide more flexibility and that the conditions had been agreed with the Police Licensing Team ahead of the submission.

“The new licence would allow events to run for over 499 people where space permits,” she wrote. “We are limited as to what we can deliver in our parks in the wetter months, and this hard-standing area is a very central location where we can offer a wider events programme to the community and protect our public green spaces during winter months.”

Ms Dexter said: “I’m here tonight because parks in Fulham at least are very concerned about this type of umbrella licence where residents will no longer have an opportunity to give the committee any type of input or make representations regarding different events that will be taking place in St Paul’s, but if you start these types of umbrella licences then you’ll be looking most likely to be using them throughout the borough, and this is something we’re very, very, very concerned about.”

Emma Jerrard, Head of the events and filming team at the council, told members other locations such as Ravenscourt Park already have similar licences and that the local authority does thorough checks on companies wishing to use the spaces.

She said:, “We ourselves ensure that we do not overpopulate certain parks by having event after event after event even though perhaps the licence has been granted for a full year. What this [application] gives us under the flyover is flexibility to have more than 499 [attendees]. It is not clear to perhaps everybody that we will be having 499 and more at each event. What it does state is we will have events, perhaps [it] could be 600, it could be 1,000, it could be 1,500. It gives us the flexibility of having these events.”

It was confirmed to Cllr Wesley Harcourt that the licence would enable a maximum capacity of 4,999 people. He followed by asking whether the council is anticipating many events to meet that limit, with Ms Jerrard confirming that is not the expectation.

Ms Dexter reiterated her concerns about the potential impacts on crime and public nuisance should the variation as submitted be granted, before the Sub-Committee resolved to approve it in full.

Hammersmith and Fulham is not the only London borough looking to increase the income from its parks. For example, Tower Hamlets Council approved plans to increase the capacity of events at Victoria Park from a minimum of 5,000 people to 20,000 at the end of 2023.

Ben Lynch - Local Democracy Reporter

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