Sylvester Routs Lager Monsters

According to an article in the June 26 The Times, Sylvester McCoy, with the help of Camden council, forced a pub to exterminate part of its beer garden. "McCoy... complained to council planning officials," says the article, "after drunken customers in the garden of The Hill, in Chalk Farm, North London, indulged in Dalek-like behaviour, jeering and abusing him as he visited friends nearby. The Scottish born actor, who lives nearby in Hampstead, wrote to the council saying he had been visiting a house next to the pub for 30 years but over the past year the foul-mouthed behaviour of some customers had made it unbearable. 'It's embarrassing coming in, as the clientele shout and jeer as you come up the stairs to the house,' Mr McCoy wrote. After receiving the complaint Camden's development control sub-committee agreed to issue an enforcement order against Geronimo Inns, the pub's owners, on the ground that a previous owner had made alterations to the pub and its garden without being given planning permission. Councillors have given The Hill six months to remove raised decking in the garden which allows drinkers to sit within inches of neighbours' windows. Other changes to the Grade II listed building will also have to be removed. Camden Council ruled that the alterations had damaged the design of the historic pub and said that changes to the garden had intensified its use and had caused a loss of privacy to neighbours." (Thanks to Paul Engelberg)