Clubs targeted after shooting
THE SHOOTING of a clubber outside a Limehouse nightclub has sparked calls for increased police patrols around the area’s late-night haunts.
West Londoner Curtis Smith became the 90th person to be murdered in London this year when he was gunned down outside Cable Street’s Club Red in the early hours of Sunday morning. Carer Andrew Denty, 29, from Waterloo will appear before Thames Magistrates next week charged with the murder.
The murder of the 36-year-old outside the House music venue has shocked locals, who now want more searches of people entering and loitering outside venues such as Club Red and its neighbours Unit 7 and Stunners.
The Wharf talked to one East London resident who works in the same block as the clubs.
He said: “There’s so much drug dealing going on around here now. A couple of businesses have had break-ins. You come around here on Saturday and it’s all hard House and cocaine.
“All the villains are attracted to this area. They’ve got access to guns and knives, and if something happens to someone’s girlfriend that they don’t like they can go and get one.
“Something like this was bound to happen.�
Police believe the victim had visited Club Red with friends before the shooting, although club promoter Fordhouse says the incident itself took place outside.
The victim was hit with up to six shots to the head and neck at around 3.45am, and was pronounced dead at the scene.
Clubbers were prevented from leaving after the incident and parts of Commercial Road, Butcher Row and Cable Street were cordoned off until Monday afternoon.
A cab driver was forced to abandon his car, and waited nearly two days for police to remove the cordon before retrieving it. He said: “I was in my taxi waiting for people to come out of the club, and I saw everyone rushing out shoving and pushing each other. The police arrived and cordoned off the area and wouldn’t let me take my car out.�
The investigation is being handled by Operation Trident, which deals with gun crime in London’s black community.
Poplar and Canning Town MP Jim Fitzpatrick joined calls for swift police action.
He said: “I met the new borough commander last week, and this will be a big first test for him.
“Most of the concerns of residents have centred on anti-social behaviour, but certainly not on this scale.�
Conservative prospective MP Tim Archer called for greater patrols and searches around the area’s nightspots.
He said: “There’s a lack of police presence around that time. We need police walking past those areas to provide a sense of security and control.�
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Dear Readers & Residents,
We are Unit 7 are as shocked at the events of last weekend as you are, our intention as a venue has always been to provide a safe friendly environment for our customers and to cause as little disturbance as possible to our neighbors. We have continually worked with the council and police to ensure this and our track record speaks for itself.
In over 2 years of being open, with an average of 1000 people a weekend, we have never needed to call the police once. We pride ourselves on the good nature of our customers and have recieved praise from the police about this on several occasions.
We do also understand that our neighbours may be disturbed at times by noise, litter, and some anti-social behaviour but try our best to work with them, the council and police in order to minimise this and find solutions that work for all of us.
Please remember, we at Unit 7 are residents too... It is in our interests to have a safe neighbourhood and none of us wish to see a repeat of anything like last weekend.
Again, although we understand why the neighbours are extremely upset about what has been happening outside club red, comments such as this:
"There’s so much drug dealing going on around here now. A couple of businesses have had break-ins. You come around here on Saturday and it’s all hard House and cocaine."
show a profound misunderstanding of the differences between the venues in Cable Street Studios. We do not play hard house, but a blend of cutting edge techo, electro and minimal. The event in Club Red on the night of the shooting was an R&B night, banned by many venues for the trouble it brings.
It is for this reason we at Unit 7 submit Risk Assesments to the police for our events so they can check the background of the promoters and advise us accordingly. Which is perhaps one of the reasons we have had no such trouble at any of our events.
Whether you like the music we play, or not, we firmly believe that the Music, Art and Design we produce and promote has a positive value in culture and society and will help improve the cultural diversity of the area rather than, as the article suggests, bring in more trouble.
As such, we are having a open day on tues 5th of August for all residents to voice their concerns to us and to see what it is we are about, we hope to move forward together with you in order to maintain a valuable center for artistic expression while not infringing on the rights of others to feel safe and happy in their neighbourhood, please feel free to attend or to contact us directly at info@unitseven.co.uk
Peace and Love
The Unit 7 Team
PEACE AND LOVE from the UNIT 7 TEAM? This is a bit more serious than this you prats.
''Club Red'' ''Unit 7'' etc may pay their rent and rates but they know full well they attract all the undesirables, and all they can do is quibble on here whether they play ''Hard House'' or ''cutting edge techo''. The cynicism is breathtaking and they should surely be shut down before more of this South London gun and knife crime is transplanted north of the river.
Ladies and Gentlemen...
Please do not feed the troll
: )
I agree with the comment from Unit 7. I am a promoter of techo, electro and minimal events and for my luck I have had parties near a shooting for the past few years- when I did a party in The Key (kings cross)there was a shooting in Scala, when I was doing a party in an underground bar in Shoreditch Hight St there was a shooting next door in Jam, and the week after there was a shooting at Egg I was hosting a room there but it got cancelled and all these events were R&B events.
The people that come to my party always go to have fun, enjoy the music and socialise with their friends at night so these shooting should not be related to the underground electronic music scene because there hasnt been any.
cz
I agree music policy has alot to do with the trouble at a venue a club playing techno and electro brings a very niche crowd, ppl who are there primarily for the music and not to get ruined and cause trouble.I stay right next to cable street studios and think certain venues are to blame for bringing undersirables and trouble to the studios.
It is not Unit 7 at fault but club red, it is THAT place which feeds the undesirables with an RnB crowd.
Unit 7 Clientele do not cause trouble. End of Story. Anyone with more than a passing interest in the London Music & Club scene would know thats the case. To say anything else is plain stupid.
Thankyou for all the positive feedback, it is greatly appreciated. you can help us get re-open by signing our petition at
http://www.gopetition.co.uk/petitions/re-open-unit-7.html
Many Thanks
The Unit 7 Team
Can I ask unit 7
If you are going to reopen are you going to be doing the same events that invite the kind of trouble you got closed for?
Dear Sam,
As we mentioned in our first reply here, we have never in over two years had the police called to one of our events. The problems for which the police were called outside of the Cable Street Studio complex were all from another club of which we have no control of the management policy.
The police have no problem with us, as we mentioned above, they have praised us and our crowd on numerous occasions. The reason we are shut is because of complaints from the neighbours regarding the trouble at the front of the building, the most serious of which were not caused by us. After 2 successful open evenings a decent ammount of these neighbours who had previously been opposed to any clubs in the building have agreed to support our application, the ammount of support amongst the local community we have recieved has been overwhelming and we are positive about the future of what is a key creative space in the city.
If we re-open we will continue to run the kind of events we have from the beginning, which attract a polite, good natured crowd. We will also continue to work with the police and submit risk assessments to ensure our parties are safe and well orgaised.
Kind Regards
The Unit 7 Team