London’s Chariots sauna facing closure?
By Will Stroude
Chariot’s sauna in London’s Shoreditch could soon be facing closure to make way for a new luxury development.
The popular gay establishment, which opened in 1997, could close in 2016 at the latest after a US hotel operator submitted plans to redevelop the site, Gay Star News reports.
Manhattan’s Highgate Holdings have secured control of the site on the increasingly developed Shoreditch High Street, and have submitted plans to build a 300,000 sq ft mixed-use building, which would include a 200-bedroom luxury hotel as well as 100,000 sq ft of offices, community retail and leisure space.
The deal is yet to be finalised, but the plans will be submitted to Hackney Council within the month, with construction scheduled to start in late 2016.
Hackney Council told Gay Star news that there was “absolutely no guarantee” that the proposal will be successful.
“All planning applications are subject to the same process,” a spokesperson said. “Once an application is submitted to the local planning authority it will be considered by the planning committee.”
The news comes in the wake of a slew of sudden gay bar closures in the capital. In the last the few months alone, Vauxhall’s Barcode, The Black Cap in Camden and The Green Carnation and Manbar in Soho have all shut down for good, with Manbar blaming Westminster Council’s decision to remove its entertainment license – click here to find out more.
Meanwhile, famous London drag club Madame Jojo’s was forced to close at the end of last year following a ‘serious violent incident’, while The Yard has narrowly avoided closure after a successful campaign against redevelopment plans. In the wake of closures, Stephen Fry has since backed the ‘Save Soho’ campaign to preserve the area’s heritage.
With more and more venues under threat, we recently took an in-depth look at the problems they’re currently facing, asking: is it the end of the capital’s gay scene as we know it?
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