Frankie's Wine Bar Hornchurch 2am Bid: Police Object

Frankie’s Wine Bar on Station Lane, Hornchurch, wants to stay open an hour later on Friday and Saturday nights, until 2am. The Metropolitan Police, Havering’s licensing team and the council’s noise officers have all objected. A licensing sub-committee of councillors will decide the application on Friday 9 October (Havering Council, Licensing Sub-Committee, 9 October 2026).

Two days earlier, on Wednesday 7 October, the same panel hears a separate application from Black Loom, a café on Butts Green Road that wants to sell alcohol until midnight at weekends. Three residents objected to that one (Havering Council, Licensing Sub-Committee, 7 October 2026).

What Frankie’s has asked for

The bar at 29 Station Lane, RM12 6JL, can already sell alcohol, play recorded music and serve late-night refreshment until 1am on Fridays and Saturdays. The application from Frankie’s Bar (Hornchurch) Limited asks to move that to 2am on those two nights only. The council received it on 25 August (licensing officer’s report).

The bar has offered eight extra conditions for the later nights (application). They include:

• door supervisors from 10.30pm until 2.30am
• no new customers admitted after midnight
• a written dispersal policy covering taxis and departing customers
• a personal licence holder on site from 8pm until close
• fresh staff training on Challenge 25 and refusing sales

The application says the extra hour is “necessary to sustain the business and safeguard jobs”. It describes Frankie’s as a small bar with “a mature and regular adult clientele”. It says the bar has already traded until 2am under temporary event notices “with no issues”. A statement from its licensing agent puts the number of those notices at 15 (Havering Council, public reports pack).

Why the police, licensing and noise teams object

Frankie’s sits inside Hornchurch town centre’s cumulative impact zone. That is an area where the council has decided the number of licensed venues is already causing problems. Under Havering’s licensing policy, a new licence or a variation that adds to the problem “will normally be refused” unless the applicant shows it will not. The policy’s guide closing time for bars is midnight on Fridays and Saturdays. The licensing authority’s objection, dated 8 September, quotes both points (reports pack, above).

The Metropolitan Police asked councillors to refuse the application. Its licensing officer wrote that police recorded 44 offences in Hornchurch town centre between 10pm and 4am in the past 12 months. Those included violence, public order offences and serious sexual offences.

Police also listed incidents linked to Frankie’s itself between September 2024 and September 2026. The force describes four of them as violence against the person, and its list includes one theft. Police accepted that no incidents were recorded while the bar traded late under temporary notices. But they said a permanent change would allow late opening on up to 104 nights a year, which is “a materially different operating environment”.

The council’s Environmental Protection team leader objected on noise. He said the team had received complaints about the bar in summer 2024, and again in April and July 2026. Those recent complaints could not yet be substantiated because the complainants’ diary sheets had not come back. He wrote that no other venue nearby opens beyond 1am, so “any disturbance beyond 01.00 hours would be attributable to Frankies”. The people most affected would be those living in the flats above the parade.

Three people wrote in support. One customer described it as “a friendly, well-managed and safe place to socialise”.

Black Loom, Butts Green Road: Wednesday’s hearing

Black Loom is at 51 Butts Green Road, RM11 2JS, in a parade of shops in a mostly residential area. The application describes it as “a lounge-style bistro with a seated café layout”. It asks to sell alcohol from 11am to 11pm Sunday to Thursday, and until midnight on Fridays and Saturdays (licensing officer’s report).

No police or council team objected. The licensing officer’s report says the applicant agreed a long list of conditions with the police and the licensing authority. They include:

• alcohol sold only with a meal, by waiter service, to seated customers
• CCTV covering the street, kept for 31 days
• no under-18s after 9pm unless with an adult
• windows and doors closed after 9pm

Three residents objected. Their letters, published in redacted form, raise noise late at night, parking in Walden Road and nearby streets, and the number of licensed premises already close by. One lives in Ridgemont Place, a block of 30 flats opposite. That letter says the objection is to the late alcohol hours, not to a daytime café (Havering Council, Licensing Sub-Committee, 7 October 2026).

What it means for you

• Both hearings are public. They start at 10.30am in the Council Chamber at Romford Town Hall. Anyone can watch, but only people who sent a representation within the consultation period can speak.
• The decision is not a formality. Councillors can grant an application, grant it with shorter hours or extra conditions, or refuse it. Inside a cumulative impact zone, the starting point for Frankie’s is refusal unless the bar persuades them otherwise.
• Either side can appeal. An applicant or objector unhappy with the decision can appeal to the magistrates’ court within 21 days of being told the outcome.
• If late-night noise affects you, report it to Havering’s noise team. A complaint logged with the council is the evidence licensing reviews depend on.

We will report both decisions when Havering publishes them. For other changes in the area, see our Havering planning news page.