Storm over comedy club bid to host strippers

CAMPAIGNERS against strippers will protest outside the Red Rose comedy club in Finsbury Park tomorrow (Saturday).
Owner Altarslan Bali maintains he has no plans to turn the venue into a strip club, but wants the freedom to have strippers at private parties.
The club, best known for its radical comedy, reopened earlier this year after flagging audiences forced it to shut twice. Comedy nights are to continue at the Seven Sisters Road venue, which doubles as Club Imperial nightclub.
Mr Bali is applying to Islington Council to have the club licensed for “striptease and fully nude tableside dancing”.
He said: “It’s not going to be a strip club. Sometimes when we have private functions, they ask for strippers so we want to have a licence.
“It’s not going to be a regular thing. It depends on demand.”
But Labour councillor Phil Kelly said: “Club Imperial already has a poor reputation among neighbours for late- night disturbances. Turning it into a strip club will attract even more undesirable elements. A strip club would send entirely the wrong message to children and young people who live a few yards away. I am sure many women – and men – will find the idea as offensive as I do.”
Cllr Kelly will lead a demonstration outside the club tomorrow (Saturday) at noon. Objectors have until January 6 to put their case.
The Red Rose, owned in the past by London Co-op and later North Islington Labour Party, once housed the constituency offices of MP Jeremy Corbyn.
It was sold by the Labour Party in the early 1990s and has since had several owners.
ROISIN GADELRAB