London's Night Czar: "I don't want clubbing pushed to the edge of the city"

Amy Lamé, the recently-appointed Night Czar for London, has stated her intent to keep nightclubs in the heart of the city.

Speaking after a tour of a building development on Denmark Street in Soho, she made it clear that it's her wish to keep London a rich mix of cultural spots, rather than pushing some venues to the outskirts.

"I don't want clubbing pushed out to the edges. I want clubs, pubs, live music venues right in the heart of everything. Right across London."

However, she did declare that it'd be difficult for London to replicate Amsterdam, where clubs such as De School and Shelter have 24-hour licences.

"There's about 900,000 people that live in Amsterdam and they had 17 million tourists visit last year. You can imagine how jam-packed the centre of the town is.

"They had to create this 24-hour clubbing zone around the city. If we'd had said we'd do a clubbing doughnut in the suburbs of London, I think there might be some people upset about that."

In terms of potential cases similar to fabric, which was forced to close briefly due to drug-related deaths, Lamé says a more balanced and "sensible" approach will have to be made in future.

"People take drugs. People take drugs in clubs. People take drugs in hotels. People take drugs in all different kinds of places. If we ignore that and don't deal with it, then people will sadly be ill or die.

"That is something I don't want to happen on my watch. I know fabric doesn't want it to happen again, Islington council doesn't want it and the police don't want it. For too long people have been entrenched in 'it's us versus them, them versus us'.

Dave Turner is Mixmag's Digital News Editor, follow him on Twitter