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South-east London is getting a big new space for live events. At the end of August, Greenwich Council granted a licence for a 5,000 capacity open-air venue in Charlton Riverside, which is off Woolwich Road and not far from the Thames Barrier.
The new venue will sit on a concrete plot of land next to the warehouses at the old Stone Foundries site. Operator CW Bases Ltd says that it will host a ‘diverse mixture’ of events, from concerts, theatre and fashion shows to food festivals, corporate events and even boxing matches. Venue manager Hugo Kibasi told the council’s licensing committee that most of them wouldn’t actually be music-led.
The space will be allowed to open from 9am to 11pm every day, with music and alcohol permitted until 10.30pm. But don’t expect 5,000 strong crowds straight away. There’s a cap of three events with more than 1,000 people this year, and none with more than 3,000. From 2027, it will be able to host up to ten events a year with more than 1,000 people, six of which can go over 3,000, as long as the council gets six months’ notice.
There are a few other rules too. Events can’t clash with Charlton Athletic home games without permission, and the operators have to come up with a plan for getting crowds home safely. The Metropolitan Police had originally warned of a real risk of dangerous overcrowding at Charlton station, which is unstaffed from 8pm.
Not everyone is in support of the venue, though. The council’s own community protection team maintained its objection, with officer Nick Dornan warning that concrete on the site could make music reverberate around nearby Atlas Gardens and Derrick Gardens, where he said residents would ‘complain straight away’. Kibasi called it a ‘very valid concern’, and admitted CW Bases hadn’t yet consulted local residents but said it would once the venue opened.
There’s no opening date yet and no events have been announced, so we’ll keep you posted.
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