Crouch End residents are preparing to do battle on all fronts in a bid to shut down a lapdancing club. Owners of The Music Palace on Tottenham Lane want to convert it into a late night "gentlemen's club" with naked ladies dancing at tables. Campaigners point out that the area's not only heavily residential, citing reports about increased criminal and antisocial knock-on effects around nekkid bars, but the venue is also opposite a primary school. Ah, we look forward to the time when that moment a small child asks, wide-eyed, "Mummy, what's a lapdance?" becomes not a horrible loss of innocence but a standard rite of passage.
Managers of The Music Palace have already withdrawn the plans once but now seem determined to go ahead, despite the disapproval of their neighbours, and the Council's hands may be tied. Haringey isn't in favour of lapdancing joints but, under the 2003 Licensing Act, can't turn the application down simply on 'moral grounds'. But members of the Lap Off! group (great aims, terrible punning) have vowed that even if Haringey council grants the licence this week, they'll be back to fight the yearly renewal under new regulation announced this week. (Image by dannyman under a Creative Commons licence)
