Neighbouring London restaurants just about avoid being shut - but owner isn't allowed to work there

Two 'beloved' restaurants in Soho have been given a 'final chance' to stay open after repeatedly selling alcohol without food. Westminster City Council said Violet's and the next door Mediterranean Café on Berwick Street could reopen after a three-month suspension.

The council's Licensing Committee also barred Ali Aksu, the venues' owner, and his brother Mehmet, from working inside either premises and ordered a new manager be put in place, during a licensing meeting on Thursday (January 16). They also required Mr Aksu to erect a sign outside his restaurants warning customers alcohol could only be sold with a meal.

It comes after the popular eateries were reportedly found selling alcohol after hours and allowing customers to drink without food, in breach of their licences. On Thursday, councillor Angela Piddock, Chair of the Licensing Committee, said Mr Aksu was to blame for the venues' non-compliance.

Westminster City Council (pictured) said it was the 'last chance' for Violet's and Mediterranean Café (Image: LDRS)

She said: "Based on the regulatory history, which is at best disappointing on the evidence given today, giving the premises licence holder another chance is a serious concern. [However] this must be balanced from evidence from numerous representations supporting the venue."

She added: "The premises licence holder is the problem but the Licensing Committee must balance the community and Westminster with the promoting of the licensing objectives." Cllr Piddock said the committee had 'only just' been persuaded not to revoke the licence after hearing from supporters.

The committee said Violet's and Mediterranean Café would have to train staff on the conditions of their licence twice yearly and check the IDs of anyone appearing under 25. Westminster City Council ordered a review after officers found customers drinking without food during an inspection on New Year's Eve.

A probe by licensing officers found the premises failed to carry out ID checks and used unauthorised chairs and tables on the footpath outside the restaurant and café. The operator has been fined £14,000 in the past for licensing breaches which it pleaded guilty to. The venues also faced a licence review in 2021 over similar alleged breaches and had their premises shut down by police in June 2024 after staff were allegedly caught serving alcohol to customers without food during Pride celebrations.

PC Steve Muldoon from the Met Police told councillors on Thursday that an 'immense' amount of effort had gone into helping Mr Aksu run his restaurants in line with their licensing conditions. He said: "This is the second review in four years and on top of this, all the prosecutions since, have made absolutely no difference.

"I have personally made numerous attempts to explain the licensing conditions, and I hope Mr Aksu can agree with that, on a number of occasions over a period of years... Now I see it as a blatant refusal to follow the conditions that have been listed."

Gary Grant, representing Mr Aksu, said his client was sorry for the repeated breaches, which he put down to Mr Aksu's friendly nature and desire to accommodate customers. He said the restaurants were 'beloved' by customers and a hub for the community.

He said: "Not every severe migraine is cured in an appropriate or proportionate way that might end in a beheading. It's effective but it's not necessarily the best way."

Andrew Malone, a supporter, told the committee: "This is such a unique, vibrant place. It goes beyond just serving food. It is something that is truly exceptional and it makes me feel safe."

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Primark owner to announce Christmas trading results ahead of plans to open 79 new stores

Primark's parent company will next week shed light on whether it has been knocked by tough conditions on the high street – or benefited from a splurge in festive shopping. Associated British Foods (ABF) will also reveal whether the consumer group, which also makes food and ingredients, has been affected by recent weakness in sugar prices.

The FTSE 100 company will post a trading update for its latest quarter on Thursday, January 23. It comes after a year which saw shares lift strongly in 2024 before sinking later in the year as it came under pressure from lower sugar prices and concerns over consumer sentiment.

On Friday, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed that the UK retail sector saw a weaker-than-expected December, as sales dropped by 0.3% for the month. It came amid continued pressure on household budgets from rising mortgage and rental costs.

However, investors will take some positivity from the figures, which pointed towards 4.4% growth for clothing and footwear retailers. Retail rivals including Next have also delivered strong updates amid signs of resilience from fashion customers.

The retail chain currently has 451 stores but has said it plans to grow this to 530 stores globally by 2026 (Image: Chris J. Ratcliffe/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

In its latest update in November, ABF revealed that Primark sales grew by 1% in the year to September after the budget chain was hit by damp early summer weather. Shareholders will be hoping that positive momentum later in the financial year translated into a strong run-up to Christmas.

Aarin Chiekrie, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “Primark, ABF’s star asset, likely enjoyed bustling footfall over the festive season, with Christmas shoppers flocking through its doors. Overseas expansion is another key ingredient expected to keep Primark’s tills ringing.”

The retail chain currently has 451 stores but has said it plans to grow this to 530 stores globally by 2026. Investors will hope the company will shed more light on its expansion progress, which will see its brand grow in Europe and the US.

Elsewhere, shareholders will also be keen for the company to give further detail on how profitability might have been affected by the recent decrease in sugar prices. Prices have slipped in recent weeks to their lowest levels since October 2023 and management have already warned that sugar profits could be cut by more than half this year.

The company, which owns the Twinings, Ryvita and Pataks brands, will also reveal how its food and drink operation has traded. Retail sales were largely weaker in December due to a shock slump in supermarket sales, with grocery sales sliding by 1.9% for the month.

Brands have also come under pressure as many shoppers have turned to own-label in a bid to bring the cost of their weekly shop down.

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Life on the hidden London street that looks like it is 1700 but is showing signs of gentrification

London is an ever-changing city with over a thousand years of history and often seems to take a life of its own. With this wealth of history at its disposal there are some areas which really feel like they can transport you back in time.

They have been missed by the steamrollers of change and serve as homages to the lives that once roamed the same streets we do now. Ezra Street, just off the famous Columbia Road, is one of these places.

And the East London location hasn't gone unnoticed by top film producers as it is regularly used in period films. Most recently, a very friendly Kate Winslet visited during the filming of Lee, according to local publican Grace Mpofu.

Grace Mpofu works in The Royal Oak pub on the corner of Ezra Street and met Kate Winsley while she was filming for Lee outside the pub (Image: Facundo Arrizabalaga/MyLondon)

Grace has worked at The Royal Oak on the corner of Ezra Street for the last four years and was thrilled to see the global superstar during the two-day shoot on location. "She was really nice," Grace said, "There was a little bit of an issue with their production company but she came over and apologised. I was like 'that's very nice of you, you don't have to do that'. I thought that was very different."

Grace spoke about them filming the scene: "If you look at the movie, they put some CGI [computer generated images] on it, but it's the whole street. They came here with soil and stuff to try to make it like a war zone"

The place has a real rustic charm (Image: Facundo Arrizabalaga/MyLondon)

The cobbled street with beautiful Georgian townhouse architecture has been featured in plenty of other TV shows and films such as Call the Midwife, Goodnight Sweetheart and The Krays (1990). There have also been a lot of photoshoots along the street, Grace said, like GQ Magazine. Olive Alvarez, an employee of Italian restaurant Campania, said she remembers Call the Midwife bringing in fake snow to film.

"I was once watching some random Netflix show and I saw Ezra Street, and I thought 'that's so random' but it was filmed years ago," Grace said. Long before it became a hotspot for Hollywood stars, couple Valerie and Ted Digby called Ezra Street and the surrounding areas home and were visiting this week on a trip down memory lane.

Valerie and Ted Digby took a trip down memory lane to Ezra Street, where they grew up as kids. It has changed a lot since then, they said (Image: Facundo Arrizabalaga/MyLondon)

Ted used to live with his aunt on the street itself but his building, No. 9 Ezra Street, along with an old wood factory, has since been knocked down. They haven't been rebuilt, and now a courtyard sits in their place.

Valerie told of what life was like in 1950s Bethnal Green street. She said: "My aunt used to live right next door to the wood factory; she used to get a lot of mice because they used to come in and chew the wood. They didn't have inside toilets either; they were outside."

Ted said: "I used to live in there with my aunt and my grandfather. There were quite a few people living in there in such a small house. A lot of people." He added: "It's a shame because they knocked these old houses down and haven't rebuilt them."

Campania now sits in the ancient building in the middle of the street, but Valerie and Ted remember it when it was S. Jone's Dairy. "A girl called Megan used to serve there," Valerie recalled. "She used to give us wonderful cakes and sterilised milk." Despite the area changing a lot, as well as part of the street, some things remain, like the primary school across the way.

Tom Bloom said the area has been gentrified a lot since he came here in the late 1990s (Image: Facundo Arrizabalaga/MyLondon)

Tom Bloom is another veteran of the area. He has been running his shop, Milagros, since the late 1990s, selling authentic Latin American wares. He, too, has seen the area change a lot. 

He said: "It's all been gentrified; the West London Children bought homes in East London. There didn't use to be any restaurants, but there's been a whole foodie revolution."

Tom is aware that he was part of the gentrification move and "brought new ideas to the area and took advantage of the low rents at the time," he said. He originally grew up in Yorkshire but has lived in America and Bristol too. During his travels in South America he decided to bring back and sell the artisanal products they were making over there.

Like all the other members of the community, Tom has seen some odd things going on on Ezra Street set up by film crews. He said: "There was one thing where I saw real life Zebras walking out of the pub [the Royal Oak]".

He said lots of stars have come into his shop too like Russell Brand ("for good or ill", he added), Celeste and famous footballers too.

Lots of local kids end up working at the Italian restaurant in the middle of the street, Campania, Olive Alvarez said. This used to be S. Jone's Dairy, Valerie and Ted said. (Image: Facundo Arrizabalaga/MyLondon)

But it's not just famous people who frequent the area, Campania employee Oliva Alvarez said, but there is a real sense of community life. She said: "All of my friends went to the local primary school here and every generation of school kid from there has ended up working at Campania."

Anisur Choudhury, 37, is one of the newer additions to the community, bringing homemade Bengali food to Ezra Street. He opened his shop Corner Deli three months ago and business has been going well.

He said he had not seen any filming going on since he arrived and noted that most of the films happen at Campania in the middle of the street. He said: "I think this is a good location for a thriller, for suspense, especially with the trees coming out. It's a very nice place though."

Anisur Choudhury has had a promising start opening his eatery on the corner of Ezra Street (Image: Facundo Arrizabalaga/MyLondon)

Anisur spoke positively about the community on the street: "The community feel here is quite strong, especially on Columbia Road, there's a very unified community. I've met most of the traders and they're very friendly."

He spoke about the busy Sundays due to the flower market on adjoining Columbia Road. He said: "I personally don't want to just rely on busy Sundays for my business, we want to have a solid Monday to Friday too and so Sundays can become a bonus."

He noted that the ancient Smithfield Meat market was closing after 800s years of service but said he was not too worried that the flower market would shut down, unless developers "wanted to build houses in the middle of the street."

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South London council's new top boss set to get £230k - £40k more than drink-driving predecessor

Lambeth Council's new top boss is set to be paid £230,000 per year — over £40,000 more than his drink-driving predecessor. Ian Davis's six-digit salary is expected to be rubberstamped by councillors at a meeting next Wednesday (January 22).

Mr Davis was announced as the Labour-run council's new Chief Executive in December, replacing Bayo Dosunmu who resigned after getting caught drink-driving by police in June 2024.

Dosunmu was paid just under £190,000 per year before his resignation from the council in July 2024. Mr Davis was on just over £220,000 in his previous job as Chief Executive of Enfield Council in North London, to which he was appointed in 2017.

Former Lambeth Council Chief Executive Bayo Dosunmu resigned in July 2024 after getting caught drink-driving by police (Image: Facundo Arrizabalaga/MyLondon)

Lambeth received 14 applications for the Chief Executive position following a recruitment campaign it launched in September 2024. Eight candidates were then longlisted for consideration by an appointments committee, which included Labour Leader of the council, Claire Holland, as well as three other Labour councillors and one Liberal Democrat.

Four candidates were then put forward for a final interview by the committee, after which Mr Davis was recommended for appointment. He will replace Acting Chief Executive Fiona Connolly, who stepped up to the top job following Dosunmu's departure in July last year.

Dosunmu pleaded guilty to drink-driving, failing to stop after a crash, and driving without insurance at a hearing at Westminster Magistrates' Court in August 2024. He was disqualified from driving for two years and ordered to complete 150 hours of unpaid work at a sentencing hearing at the same court a month later in September 2024. Dosunmu is due to be tried for possession of cocaine, which he denies, at Isleworth Crown Court later in 2025.

Councillors are expected to rubberstamp Ian Davis's appointment and salary at a meeting at Lambeth Town Hall on Wednesday (January 22) (Image: LDR Grainne Cuffe)

Ian Davis said it was an 'honour' to have been selected as the council's new Chief Executive following his appointment in December. He said: "Lambeth is an iconic borough with huge potential and the borough's Lambeth 2030 vision sets out a clear and compelling vision for the future that I look forward to working with you all to deliver."

Cllr Claire Holland, Leader of the council, said she was 'delighted' to name Mr Davis as Lambeth's new Chief Executive. Speaking in December 2024, she said: "Ian is a local government leader with significant experience of driving service improvement and delivering better outcomes for residents.

"His wealth of experience, knowledge and commitment will be crucial to supporting the council to deliver our Lambeth 2030 ambitions especially in the challenging financial times that local government faces."

Got a story? Email robert.firth@reachplc.com.

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Elianne Andam live updates as jury expected to return verdict in Hassan Sentamu murder trial

A jury is expected to return a verdict in the trial of a teenager accused of murdering 15-year-old Elianne Andam after a row over a teddy bear. Hassan Sentamu, 18, is accused of stabbing Elianne in the neck outside the Whitgift Centre in Croydon town centre on September 27 2023.

The defendant, who declined to give evidence, claimed his autism spectrum disorder caused him to lose control during the meeting to exchange belongings with his ex-girlfriend, who was Elianne’s friend.

The prosecution said he flew into a rage of 'white hot anger' and had no lawful excuse for having a kitchen knife, having picked it up at home after being 'humiliated' by a group of girls the night before.

The defence said Sentamu's autism meant he was unable to regulate his emotions when Elianne grabbed a Tesco bag from him containing handwritten love-letters to his former girlfriend.

Two 'equally eminent' forensic psychiatrists, with opposing diagnoses and views on the relevance of autism, gave evidence across four days during the second half of the trial, but Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb told jurors 'one of them must be wrong' .

The judge sent the jury out to deliberate on their verdicts at 2.43pm on Tuesday (January 14).

Sentamu, of New Addington, near Croydon, has admitted manslaughter but denies murder and having an article with a blade or point in public.

Check out our live blog below for the latest updates...

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The 2 London Underground stops right next to each other that really should have new names by now

Two Tube stops on the London Underground map are causing a bit of a headache for commuters and tourists alike, as they share the same name but are actually different stations.

West London locals will be all too familiar with the baffling situation at Edgware Road, where one station serves the Bakerloo line and another caters to the Circle, District and Hammersmith and City lines.

It's a right old pickle for unsuspecting tourists who pop out from the Bakerloo line only to find they're at the wrong station for their Circle line change.

A five-minute stroll around the corner is needed to reach the correct station - a simple renaming could save a lot of confusion.

There are 2 Edgware Road stations, a 5-minute walk apart (Image: SHAUN CURRY/AFP via Getty Images)

If you fancy travelling between them via the Tube, you'd need to hop on a train to Paddington and change there - another station that's technically two separate ones.

To add to the confusion, there's an Edgware station on the Northern line, but it's located near Stanmore, so it's less baffling.

Hammersmith is another head-scratcher, being two different stations.

Even more perplexing, getting between them on the Tube requires 10 stops and three different line changes.

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Passport rankings 2025, how strong the UK's is and visa-free holiday spots

Brexit has left those with an EU passport envied and revered among their peers. So you might be surprised to hear that the UK still ranks pretty highly in the global passport rankings.

Singapore took number one spot in the Henley Passport Index for 2025. Anyone with a Singaporean passport can visit 195 destinations without needing a visa.

A Japanese passport was the second most valuable. It unlocked the door to 193 different countries without requiring a visa.

Third place was split amongst several countries - Finland, France, Germany, Italy, South Korea and Spain. Anyone with one of these passports can visit 192 different countries visa-free.

A British passport unlocks 190 destinations visa-free (Image: belterz/E+/Getty)

The UK wasn’t too far down on the list, coming in at fifth place alongside Belgium, New Zealand, Portugal and Switzerland. All of these passports have access to a respectable 190 countries around the world without needing a visa.

At the bottom end of the scale, an Afghan passport came in 106th place and only granted access to 26 countries visa-free.

The Henley Passport Index compiles data spanning 19 years from the International Air Transport Authority. It includes 199 passports and 227 different travel destinations.

However, the British passport was once ranked even higher. It even came in 1st place in 2010, 2013, 2014 and 2015. This dropped down to 3rd place in 2016 and to its lowest ranking of 7th place in 2020 - the same year as the UK’s formal withdrawal from the EU.

A British passport will still grant you access to 190 different countries including Australia, Costa Rica and the United Arab Emirates. Visas are required for other destinations such as Afghanistan, Cuba and Russia.

The full rankings of passports and lists of visa-free holiday destinations are available online.

Got a story? Please get in touch at katherine.gray@reachplc.com

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