After Threat of Closure, London Club FABRIC Lives On

After Threat of Closure, London Club FABRIC Lives On
On the brink of closure, the famed London nightclub, Fabric, has agreed to install a collection of new security measures, including a £300/night sniffer dog service, to keep the venue afloat. Amidst recent heightened concerns throughout the industry regarding drug-related deaths, Fabric’s club license was questioned and subsequently reviewed by the Islington Council, following a report that revealed four drug-related deaths at the venue over the last three years. Local officials have agreed that in order for the club to remain open for business, extra precautions must be established including: sniffer dogs, stringent ID checks on all club-goers, improved CCTV, and increased drug searches.  The club management will appeal the council’s decision, as they fail to see eye-level on “a number of key points.” Although the threat of the club’s closure has all but dissipated, the implementation of heightened security measures remains to be seen, and the waiting game begins. Read the official statement from fabric below:

fabric opened in October of 1999 and we’ve remained open over the 15 years since. Throughout this time, although the Farringdon area has changed, we’ve always prided ourselves on being a visible, approachable and integral part of the local community. Taking great lengths to work alongside and dialogue with local businesses and organizations we work tirelessly to ensure the safety of our patrons, at all times. We’ve run highly visible warning campaigns tackling numerous issues including drug use, safer travel, our harassment awareness initiative run in cooperation with Hollaback LDN and our Phone Safety campaign (which is now recognisable city-wide across London)

In short, we care deeply about the welfare of our patrons. fabric has always operated a zero tolerance drugs policy and we’re proud to continue to be open and honest in assisting the police with any incident investigations.

We employ two trained medics who are on site for the duration of all of our club events and, as a venue, we provide free water and non-judgmental advice from bar staff, stewards and security teams. The incidents referred to in the Met Police’s report are truly tragic events; incidents that we assure you our team reacted to in the quickest possible and most efficient manner—our medical staff have since been commended by senior coroners on their ‘impressive’ and ‘quite extraordinary’ level of expertise.

As a team we’ve all felt the shock and horror that a death on our premises can cause. We don’t take it lightly; in fact, we’re constantly adapting our protocols in direct reaction to them in the hope that these are changes we can make to our operational policy that will prevent incidents like this from happening in the future.

H/T: RA