The venue was closed for several months following a stampede outside the venue on the night of an Asake concert last December, in which two people died and major questions were asked of the security of the venue as it became known that the security had previously let those without tickets into the venue.

The decision to reinstate the venues license was made at a review hearing at Lambeth Town Hall on September 11^th and 12^th. The decision was made on the premise that 77 new conditions had to be met to ensure the safety of the venue.

Lambeth Councillor Dr Mahamed Hashi released a statement saying: “Stronger doors, new crowd management systems, more detailed risk assessments, a new ticketing system, a new centralised control and command centre as well as new security and management at the venue, were among the measures proposed by AMG at the hearing to support their aim of regaining the venue’s licence so it can reopen, and making sure we never see a tragedy again like the one there in December 2022.

AMG will now need to put in place the agreed measures to enable the reopening of this much-loved local venue, which is a key part of Brixton’s cultural heritage and has been enjoyed by millions. We’ll be working to closely monitor all licensing conditions to ensure that safety is at the forefront of the venue’s future operations.”

A timeline for the venue’s reopening has yet to be announced as well as the nature of the test events that will test the venue’s new procedures and systems.

AMG (Academy Music Group), the company that runs the venue released a statement saying: “Over the past nine months the venue’s importance to the local community and the live music scene in the UK has been made clear through first-hand professional testimony, campaigns, and petitions as well as economic assessments demonstrating the financial impact to the surrounding area caused by the closure,”

“Academy Music Group is determined to learn all appropriate lessons from the night of December 15, 2022. Working at a senior level with experts across all disciplines, AMG presented a comprehensive, multi-faceted response for the licensing authorities to support their case for the safe and secure reopening of the venue. We appreciate having had the opportunity to present these detailed proposals and revised licence conditions at the hearing and we are very grateful they met with the approval of the Licensing Sub-Committee.”

Many will be happy to hear that the historic venue is reopening, as evidenced by a petition that was launched last April called #SaveBrixtonAcademy, in which over 116,000 people signed the petition including big names like The Prodigy.

The hearing occurred amidst an ongoing period of uncertainty for the Brixton Academy following the devastating crowd crush at an Asake show last December that ultimately claimed the lives of two people and left another in critical condition. The event forced the Academy to shut its doors and led to the venue having its live music license revoked. This in turn led to a backlash amongst fans of the beloved venue, leading to a petition to reopen its doors amassing quite the success.

The first day of the hearing led to the venue refusing the accusation of racial profiling, with AMG’s legal representative Mr Philip Kolvin QC quoted as saying, “My client is probably the leading host of music of Black origin in this country. That’s a position that it values and would like to continue to be. Of the 13 different risks assessed by the Academy, none of them are racial“.

Lambeth Council barrister Horatio Waller QC agreed with Kolvin on the second day of the hearing, saying, “This new process should not lead to a tunnel vision situation where risk is associated with genre or race“.

Waller also confirmed yesterday that the venue could be re-opened if certain conditions were met. He claimed that AMG have performed a “complete overhaul” of their security procedures and attitude towards risk assessments since December and that these were “independently audited” by consultants and commended as “comprehensive and robust“.

Waller also states that “the council supports, in principle, the re-opening of the venue based upon new conditions“, with these conditions including a “new, revised system for ingress entry into the venue” and the “introduction of new barriers positioned on the highway”.

Mr Kolvin QC discussed in his closing argument the installation of strengthened doors at the venue. He stated, “At the time of this incident, the doors were unable to withstand a mass and violent attack. In other words, the premises were not a fortress, they were a concert hall. Even if you consider the doors should have been more robust at an earlier stage, that is a matter of blame which is for other processes to investigate. It does not require these premises to shut down any more than any other public or private premises that are compulsorily closed following accidents, even terrible accidents. The doors have now been strengthened so as to be resilient against pressure, even if it did occur”.

Following the conclusion of the public hearing, Lambeth Council have advised that a decision on the future of the venue will be made “within five working days”, according to NME.