A MAYFAIR private members’ club has had its licence revoked following a fight at the venue where a young man was stabbed in the stomach.

Duke Street’s Concept Club had its licence suspended last month after the brawl in the Wireless Festival after-party, following “grave concerns” from police about alleged lack of control.

Westminster City Council has now opted for a full revocation following a meeting that heard the venue was failing to uphold its licensing objectives. On Monday the meeting heard how the venue was like an “ugly sister attempting to squeeze herself into Cinderella’s slipper – it simply does not fit.”

Metropolitan Police Service legal representative Amin Solimani said the venue was “fundamentally incompatible” with nightclub-style events.

Police had been told the venue manager scanned customers’ IDs when they came in and that this constituted forming membership, which was “completely unacceptable”, he said. “If that was all it took to be a private members’ club… pretty much every club in the West End would be a private members’ club”.

There were concerns that police officers had been obstructed from accessing the information they needed during the review, claims rejected by the licensee.

Council officers’ recommendation that Electshow Ltd’s licence be revoked had been supported by the landlord, Dukeson Properties Ltd. James Rankin, the freeholder’s counsel, said the landlord had become “concerned” that the tenant is a “proper tenant”, and on which count they appeared to be falling short.

“On any view what happened on the night… was a serious incident, and on any view what has taken place is an obstruction by those that were operating the premises of the police when seeking to lawfully conduct an investigation”.

He compared the venue with the “ugly sister” in the Cinderella fairytale.

The club’s counsel Sarah Clover told the committee there had been a lot of “misinformation and inaccuracy” in submissions from the police and other authorities, including regarding the ability for the venue to operate as a nightclub. She accepted the incident identified as the trigger for the review was “serious”, but said it was isolated and did not arise out of the manner in which it was being run.

Ms Clover added there was nothing to suggest the police were impeded in their investigation, and described the existing licence as a “Frankenstein’s monster” which was confusing and ambiguous.

There was, she said: “…not a clear correlation between the breaches of conditions… and an inability to run the premises in a trustworthy and effective manner as far as licensing is concerned”.

But city councillors disagreed, concluding it was appropriate to revoke the venue’s licence and for the previously-agreed interim step of suspension to continue. A full decision is due to be published on the council’s website “in due course”.