London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Wednesday, Oct 15, 2025

Brixton O2 Academy faces indefinite closure as Met ‘loses confidence’ in operator

Brixton O2 Academy faces indefinite closure as Met ‘loses confidence’ in operator

The Met Police have submitted an application for Brixton O2 to have licence revoked, saying it has ‘lost confidence’ in the operator

The Brixton O2 Academy faces the possibility of indefinite closure after the Met Police urged the council to strip the venue’s operator of their licence in the wake of a deadly crowd crush that killed two people.

A crush at an Asake gig in December claimed the lives of Gabrielle Hutchinson, 23, a security worker, and mother-of-two Rebecca Ikumelo, 33, also leaving a third person critically injured.

In January the venue’s operator the Academy Music Group (AMG) had their licence suspended for at least three months, and unless and until further steps were taken to “ensure the venue can open safely” in a variation application.

But in a fresh submission dated April 17, the Metropolitan Police said it had “lost confidence” in AMG and urged Lambeth Council to revoke the licence completely.

Gabrielle Hutchinson was killed in the crush


A spokesperson for the force confirmed the move to the Standard and said: “On Monday 16 January, the licence of the Brixton O2 Academy was suspended for three months.

“On 14 April, the Met Police submitted an application for a review of premises licence to Lambeth Council and will be seeking a revocation of the licence.

“This matter will be decided at a future council sub-committee hearing on a date to be confirmed.”

The next meeting is due to be held on May 15 and councillors may choose to ignore the recommendation of Scotland Yard. AMG told the Standard on Tuesday morning that they are cooperating fully with the police.

Simulataneous to the Met’s application, AMG submitted their own application for a variation of their licence, dated March 22, which would allow it to stay open if approved.

But the police’s application states that the option of allowing the venue to identify remedial steps to retain its licence “has not been successful in identifying the remedial measures which need to be in place before the Academy can safely re-open.”

A Lambeth Council spokesperson said: “In January the sub-committee imposed a condition requiring the venue to cease all licensable activities pending it submitting a variation application – and the council granting that application.

“The operators of the O2 Academy Brixton were required at that last meeting to come up with workable changes to their license in a way that fully addresses police concerns about the venue’s operations, and ensure no repeat of the tragic events of 15 December, via that variation application.

“The variation application has been made, and will be considered at a Licensing Sub-Committee on a date that will be confirmed shortly. The O2 Academy Brixton’s will not be able to carry out any licensable activities until after that meeting at the earliest.

“On April 14 an application to review the O2 Academy Brixton’s licence was submitted by the Met Police. That application is now subject to a statutory consultation period.

“As a result there are currently there are two outstanding applications in relation to the venue, the license variation and the license review. Lambeth Council will consider both in due course.”

Academy Music Group told the Standard: ““Academy Music Group has co-operated fully with the Metropolitan Police and Lambeth Council since the tragedy at Brixton occurred.

“We have had regular meetings and discussions with the Metropolitan Police and Lambeth Council at which we have presented detailed proposals that we believe will enable the venue to reopen safely.

Mum-of-two Rebecca Ikumelo also lost her life


“AMG has been awaiting feedback on those proposals for several weeks and looks forward to hearing from the police as soon as possible in constructive terms. The review of our licence will take place through the formal process with Lambeth Council in due course.”

If the operator loses their licence another may step in.

Officers have previously appealed for footage to unlock why the deadly crowd crush happened.

The Met is still investigating the fatal incident, including claims of lax security and concertgoers attempting to enter without tickets.

A health and safety review is also being held by Lambeth Council, led by former chief executive Paul Martin.

Nigerian Afrobeats singer-songwriter Asake had been scheduled to perform on the evening of December 15 in the last of three shows in London that week before the chaotic scenes unfolded.

At an earlier hearing, Lambeth councillors were told that a large crowd formed in front of the venue, forcing staff to close the doors in the lead-up to the crush.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
DJI Loses Appeal to Remove Pentagon’s ‘Chinese Military Company’ Label
EU Deploys New Biometric Entry/Exit System: What Non-EU Travelers Must Know
Australian Prime Minister’s Private Number Exposed Through AI Contact Scraper
Ex-Microsoft Engineer Confirms Famous Windows XP Key Was Leaked Corporate License, Not a Hack
China’s lesson for the US: it takes more than chips to win the AI race
Australia Faces Demographic Risk as Fertility Falls to Record Low
California County Reinstates Mask Mandate in Health Facilities as Respiratory Illness Risk Rises
Israel and Hamas Agree to First Phase of Trump-Brokered Gaza Truce, Hostages to Be Freed
French Political Turmoil Elevates Marine Le Pen as Rassemblement National Poised for Power
China Unveils Sweeping Rare Earth Export Controls to Shield ‘National Security’
The Davos Set in Decline: Why the World Economic Forum’s Power Must Be Challenged
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
×