The Viper Rooms club in Kingston will reopen after an ’embarrassing administrative error’ meant its license lapsed at the beginning of the year.

Councillors approved a new license for the riverside club this week [February 26], despite concerns about noise and disturbance from residents.

Neighbour Sean Dunne told the committee he had witnessed “urinating, vomiting and littering the place, disturbing the wildlife along the Thames,” and that regular screaming and shouting from clubbers meant he struggled to sleep through the night.

In a letter to the committee another resident said neighbours “have to suffer the consequences of an obscene amount of noise, traffic, illegal and anti-social behaviour as a result of the club being in operation.”

Paddy Whyr, representing the club’s manager Lewis Beer, acknowledged that the lapsing of the original license had allowed the club to learn about some of the issues residents had been facing.

He said they had only received one complaint before this, and that had been immediately resolved.

Mr Whyr added that the manager will provide his mobile number for neighbours to contact with him about any concerns or complaints in the future.

He also said the club is pioneering the use of body cameras on five security staff at the venue to reduce the risk of violence.

An internal reconfiguration of the business and changing of company names meant that the company that held the license was dissolved earlier this year, resulting in its lapse.

This meant the club had to close the premises three weeks ago and operate on temporary event notices.

The club will be allowed to sell alcohol between 10am and 2am the next day Sunday to Tuesday, extending to 3am Wednesday to Saturday, the same as its previous license.

It has also updated its procedure for helping to disperse revellers at closing time after initial concerns from the Metropolitan Police and Public Health officers.

The application received 13 responses from concerned residents.