Café wants London's mini Korea to become bigger tourist attraction - Met Police has concerns

The Met Police have raised concerns about plans from a café in London's 'mini Korea' to expand to help the neighbourhood become a bigger tourist attraction. 601pm, on New Malden High Street, wants permission for new karaoke rooms and to extend its opening hours to 1.30am.

Ji Su, representing 601pm, said the business wants to share Korean culture with a wide customer base, at Kingston Council's licensing hearing on June 18. She said: "We are relatively new on the high street… I grew up in the area, so I saw a lot of these Korean restaurants and some of these old-school Korean cafés pop up and, a long time ago, some Korean bars as well and I’ve seen them come, I’ve seen them go, I’ve seen some stay, and I think it’s really important to realise that... our community, which is known as one of the biggest Korean communities outside of Korea itself, has started to become almost an attraction to a lot of people with the rise of Korean culture."

Regarding the plans, she added: "I think it would be really important in helping our community develop a good tourist profile. So although we have started as a localised business, I don’t think it’s a far-fetched reach for us to be able to dream of a future where we get a lot of business or we get customers visiting from perhaps places that are further to reach."

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New Malden is known as London's Koreantown as it's home to the largest known population of Koreans in Europe, most of whom are South Koreans. Koreans were originally drawn to the area around the 1970s after the South Korean embassy moved nearby, along with Samsung's European headquarters.

The plans from 601pm would allow it to expand with two karaoke rooms on the first floor of the building. It would also be able to extend its opening hours and booze sales to between 9am and 1.30am on Mondays to Saturdays, and 10am to 1.30am on Sundays. Applicant Hyun Jun Kim told the hearing the business has already been using the two rooms upstairs for karaoke since the previous business moved out earlier this year.

Although the police have not objected to the addition of the karaoke rooms, it has opposed the café's plans to extend its opening hours. Millicent Wild, the police's legal representative, said staff from New Malden Methodist Church have raised concerns over 'property damage, noise, loitering, littering and urination' if the extension is granted, while residents have expressed concerns about customers causing nuisance due to being unable to leave the area easily at night as it has 'limited transport options'.

She said: "The police are also concerned that intoxicated individuals walking down the street at hours past midnight will be noisy… and this disruption will contribute to an increase in antisocial behaviour in the area."

Richard Odell, the council's environmental protection officer, objected to the full application and argued the business wants to become a 'late-night drinking venue'. He said the hours requested far exceed council policy for the 'quiet' area and claimed, while the authority has not had direct noise complaints about the venue, the extension would likely 'bring about an increase in noise and potential public nuisance'.

Ms Su said the business has taken measures to prevent customers causing any issues, including setting a maximum volume on the karaoke machines and soundproofing the venue. She added the current customer base is very local, meaning they are in walking or a bus journey's distance from the premises, although it would like to grow in the future.

She added: "I’m sure a lot of people know that New Malden is a very big Korean community and we have had a lack of safe places for Koreans to drink and enjoy their culture so I think it would be really beneficial for Koreans, whether they are coming from Korea and visiting here, missing home, or locals in the area who have not experienced Korean culture yet... to be able to share our culture in a very safe way through all of our preventive measures."

The business' current opening hours are 6am to 11pm on Sundays to Thursdays, and 6am to 12am on Fridays and Saturdays. It can sell booze from 10am to 11pm on Sundays to Thursdays, and 10am to 12am on Fridays and Saturdays. Kingston Council will publish its decision on the application in the coming days.

Got a story? Email charlotte.lillywhite@reachplc.com.

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