12:00pm Friday 12th March 2010
By Ian Mason
A problem pub is to keep pulling pints despite incidents of football hooliganism, mass brawls, drug dealing and being home to an illegal strip club.
According to neighbours of the Albany Arms the pub is “a disgrace to the town of Brentford”, and has been a long-running “blight” on the community.
On Tuesday, Hounslow police won approval for a licence review of the pub, after licensing officer Lindsay Cornock handed over a list of illegal goings-on at the Albany Road watering hole.
In a report from June 21 last year, PC Cornock wrote: “A fight broke out in the premises involving every customer present.
“Those involved were not only in possession of offensive weapons, namely knives, the knives were produced and used against others.
“One person gained access to the private part of the pub and then fell out of a first floor window.”
Other reports detailed punters being robbed, underage drinking, threatening behaviour from football hooligans, drugs being sold by dealers and strippers performing in the pub.
In January this year, landlord Kevin Callanan was found guilty of allowing an unauthorised licensed activity – dancing – to take place.
He was given a conditional discharge for three years and told to pay court costs.
In a letter supporting the review application Paul Brownlee, of Wilkes Road, said: “This pub is a centre of antisocial behaviour in the area, it invites the worst kind of customer and it is a disgrace to the town of Brentford.
“I have lived in close proximity to this pub for 14 years, and it has been a blight on my family’s quality of life throughout.”
A disabled resident wrote to Hounslow Council’s licensing committee describing how he had to clean urine and vomit from his front door after another rowdy night.
Hounslow’s panel approved the review, which imposed strict conditions on the pub – banning it from serving alcohol after 11.30pm and forbidding live music and karaoke from taking place.
Mr Callanan said his pub had been quiet and trouble-free since July last year, and claimed the police had been overzealous in requesting a review.
He said: “There were four poorly judged events and four evenings in which incidents happened, but they all happened within a few weeks of each other.
“We have learned from those incidents, they were clearly attracting the wrong type of people.”
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