Brixton Academy shut until April

Brixton's 02 Academy will stay shut until April following a fatal crowd crush in which two people died.

23 year old security guard Gaby Hutchinson and 33 year old mum of two Rebecca Ikumelo were killed as people tried to enter the Asake gig in December. A third person is still critically ill in hospital.

The Met Police asked Lambeth Council to temporarily close the O2 Academy Brixton following the incident. At an emergency licensing hearing on December 22, 2022, the council ordered the 4,900-capacity venue to close until a full hearing in January 2023.

But at a meeting today (January 16), Lambeth councillors ordered the venue to remain closed for a further three months. Cllr Fred Cowell, chair of the licensing committee said: “The decision of the licensing sub-committee is that the premises licence is suspended for a period of three months from today, expiring at one minute past midnight on 16th April, 2023.”

The O2 Academy Brixton will not be allowed to reopen to the public until the company submits an application to the council to change the venue’s licence conditions. Licensing conditions can include rules such as the venue’s opening hours and the times it can sell alcohol.

The Asake concert on December 15, 2022 was the third of three shows by the Afrobeats star at the O2 Academy Brixton. Around 5,000 tickets had been bought for the sold-out gig, Gerald Gouriet, representing the Met Police at the hearing on January 16, said.

Mr Gouriet said that the concert started at 8pm on the night, but that an hour into the gig a crowd of around 1,000 had gathered outside the venue on Stockwell Road.

Mr Gouriet said: “Staff at the venue closed the entrance doors and called the police for support. The police arrived at 9:16pm. When they arrived they found large scale disorder: the crowd pushing against the doors, trying to force them open, which they eventually did.

“When the doors were breached, the crowd poured into the lobby towards the auditorium. A number of them fell to the floor. Several were injured as the crowd surged on and over those who had fallen.”

He said that it took police an hour to clear the crowd of around 1,000 people from outside the venue. Police are taking statements from over 100 potential witnesses and looking through around 500 documents as part of the investigation, Mr Gouriet added.

Academy Music Group (AMG), which runs the O2 Academy Brixton, had already agreed to shut the venue for another three months to allow the Met Police to continue its investigation into the incident.

AMG said it expressed its “sincere condolences to the families of those who died during the tragic incident and its genuine concerns for anyone affected by it.”

An AMG spokesperson said: “AMG has reflected deeply and has come to its own decision to close the premises for three months whilst the investigations take place and, at the same time, to work in partnership with the responsible authorities, which will include a review of the licence conditions and proposed amendments.”

Stephen Walsh, representing the AMG at the meeting on January 16, said: “In Brixton alone the venue hosted just over 650 shows from 2017 to the present, with the audience approaching 2.4 million over that period of time. Over the whole period of time AGM has operated its venues, it had never until now been subject to a police review in connection to any of its O2 Academy venues.”

AMG has held the licence for the O2 Academy Brixton since 2010. Councillors had the option of allowing the venue to reopen, ordering it to close for longer or shutting the venue down permanently at the meeting on January 16.

Reacting to the decision, Vauxhall MP Florence Eshalomi said public safety is "paramount".

"Venues like the Brixton O2 make a huge cultural and economic contribution to our area, and nobody wants to lose that," she said.

"However, public safety is paramount, and the gravity of December's incident must be recognised."

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