Howl At The Moon, the Irish pub at 178 Hoxton Street, can have up to 30 customers drinking outside between 8pm and 10pm under a compromise agreed by Hackney Council’s licensing sub-committee on Wednesday 21 October.
Drinks served outside after 8pm must be in plastic containers, and the benches have to come in by 10pm. After that, up to 20 people may smoke outside. The pub must also hold a meeting with residents every three months.
What the pub asked for
The current licence allows up to 20 people outside before 8pm, when Hoxton Market closes. After that only seven smokers at a time may use the area by the side door on Stanway Street. The pub also has a permit for four pavement benches that seat 15.
The pub applied to let 30 people drink outside until 10pm and 30 smoke after that. Its manager, Connor Clark, offered at the hearing to cut the smokers to 20.
“To go from this great community space where people want to watch the football to getting seven people in a pen is what we really need to work on,” Clark told the committee, the Local Democracy Reporting Service reported.
Clark said the change would fix a conflict between the pub’s two licences. The premises licence makes it bring the benches in at 8pm, while its shopfront trading licence lets them stay out until 10pm. David Tuitt, a council licensing team leader, backed aligning the two.
Residents’ objections
Jacqueline Jenkins, chair of the Hoxton East and Shoreditch ward panel, said drinkers already fill the narrow pavement on Stanway Street, pushing people with buggies, wheelchairs and mobility scooters into the road.
“I’m not saying [customers] are actually doing anything wrong, but they feel intimidated because you’ve got people drinking outside your path,” she said.
Kam Adams, the Labour councillor for Hoxton East and Shoreditch, also objected, citing reports of groups of 15 or more outside with glasses after 8pm and noise at closing time. Clark said the pub had received no noise complaints since December 2025. No statutory body, including the Metropolitan Police, objected.
The council is due to issue its written decision within five working days of the hearing.
The essentials
- Pub: Howl At The Moon, 178 Hoxton Street, London N1 (corner of Stanway Street)
- Hearing: Hackney Licensing Sub-Committee A, Wednesday 21 October 2026
- Outside drinking: up to 30 people, 8pm to 10pm, plastic containers only
- After 10pm: up to 20 smokers; benches in by 10pm
- New condition: quarterly meetings with residents