A popular restaurant and wine bar in Bermondsey could be open six days a week if its application to vary its licence is successful.  

Maltby Restaurant, 40 Maltby Street, sits under a railway arch. It has a licence that covers Wednesday to Sunday, though it doesn't open on a Sunday. 

The varied licence, if approved, would allow it to sell alcohol from 10am to 11pm on Monday and Tuesday, will a close time of 11.30pm.  

The restaurant owners originally applied to sell alcohol until 12.30pm but reduced the proposed hours after complaints from police and neighbours.  

Police said the added hours would “increase public nuisance and would harm children by preventing them from getting good quality sleep”. They withdrew the complaint after the change in hours.  

Four neighbours objected to the variation in the licence on the grounds that the extra noise would “significantly compromise and disturb their lives and sleep”.  

“Local children have already had an unsettling year and years of disturbed sleep due to ASB.  

“The granting of these variations will increase noise and ASB, along with the anxiety many children living here experience.  

“Increasing the hours that the premises can operate will increase harm to children living in the area,” they said.  

But the restaurant owners said they believe the venue has been “lumped in” with their neighbour Maltby Street Market.  

“We are located at their entrance and the notice was posted there but we are an entirely distinct business. 

“The reason I think that many of the details of the representations relate to the operation of the market is that they almost all highlight elements of their operation.  

“One of them refers explicitly to the operation of the market. All of them refer to apparent breaches of licensing clauses for example, drinking from open containers which is something we have never allowed but is something offered by many market traders.  

“Similarly, all representations state that we have been contacted ‘multiple times’ with complaints.  

“In ten years of operating we have not had contact from a single neighbour regarding noise from our premises.  

“I know that this is not the case for the Ropewalk. As I said, I am certainly willing to alter the application as being able to operate on a Monday and Tuesday will be valuable to our business.  

“Having operated since before both the Bermondsey Arc and Bermondsey Central were built we have always been conscious that the area was becoming far more heavily populated and as such we have always endeavoured to be conscientious neighbours,” they wrote.  

A Southwark licensing sub-committee will consider the application on June 17.