A famous London pub featured in Ted Lasso has lost a battle for a bar on the pavement outside after angry locals complained Richmond Green would become a "beer garden".

The bar has been used around 12 times this year under temporary notices, without complaints. Fuller's applied to Richmond Council for a licence to make it a more regular feature – up to 55 days a year.

Neighbour Andrew Morgan told the council's licensing committee on November 24 that he once had to "turf a drunken customer out of my house who got halfway down my hallway" and that "plastic and glasses" had been left on his step when the bar was used before.

He said: "I like having the pub close to us, I'm a customer there, I've had a good relationship with them, but I'm sure you'll understand that the impact of actually putting a bar right outside my front door is more than we should be reasonably asked to accept and I think the authorities should protect us from that." 

The bar would have been open from 12pm to 9pm and removed after use. It would have also needed a street trading licence to go ahead.

James Anderson, Fuller's solicitor, said the pub wanted the bar on rugby days to cut queues inside – not to increase sales. He said: "We're not looking at increasing customers, we're not looking at changing customer behaviour in any way. We're simply providing a point of sale outside that will make it easier for customers to obtain a drink."

He added: "We fully appreciate the challenges that the Green has from younger people but this is nothing to do with us, our customers are not those younger people, those younger people are not interested in us or our outside bar."

Mr Anderson later said there's "no evidence of crime and disorder" linked to the pub, and while Mr Morgan had an "unpleasant experience" it's "inevitable" things will happen with hundreds of people by your home.

advertisement

But Tony Hawkes, lead licensing officer, raised concerns the bar would increase drinking on the Green and surrounding streets. The venue is in Richmond's Cumulative Impact Zone (CIZ), meaning there are already lots of licensed venues close together and new applications should be limited.

Locals also wrote to the council hitting out at the plans. One resident said the area is a "hot spot for drinking" and that the "applicant positively promotes drinking on Richmond Green as though it were the Princes Head's beer garden".

Mr Anderson said the pub had an "extremely clean record of operation" and only wanted the bar to give customers a "better experience". But the committee threw out the application after ruling it would increase booze sales