A knife fight led to a shisha bar in London’s East End being served with a closure notice.
Police were called to The Loft bar on the third floor of 126 Commercial Road in Whitechapel when several people were stabbed in a fight on the premises on December 19.
The Met Police later applied for the closure notice under the new Anti-Social Behaviour Act, backed by Tower Hamlets council, blaming the premises as “the cause of anti-social behaviour.”
The bar was shut down by Thames magistrates 10 days later.
The manager of The Loft was also found guilty at a separate hearing of allowing shisha smoking in an enclosed space and fined £2,000 with £2,500 costs.
Shisha smoking had been witnessed by police, council and trading standards officers several times in the previous 12 months.
The bar has since been allowed to reopen.
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