Fabric nightclub will not close (yet), hires sniffer dogs in wake of license review

The Metropoliton Police Force had requested that Islington council conduct a review of the club's license, and it decided that Fabric would not be led to the guillotine. In lieu of closure, the club's owners have agreed to hire seven sniffer dogs at £300-a-night each. The reason for the high number of canine units is that handlers/dogs are only permitted to work four hours at a time. It is the first club in London to adopt this policy.

Owners and founders Cameron Leslie and Keith Reilly spoke to the Evening Standard about the decision, with Leslie saying: “We’ll be appealing. We need to see their written reasons but we fundamentally disagree on a number of key points... we are on the same page in lots of ways, we just have fundamental differences on how to operate that.”

Reilly added: “In 15 years we have had six million people come through the doors and sadly there have been four deaths. We do everything we can to stop people taking drugs in the club. What’s happened recently is this country is awash with drugs. There’s been a large batch of MDMA that’s got more powerful and has caught the kids out.”

The judgement means Fabric will continue to operate as normal - avec sniffer dogs - and the Seth Troxler-helmed NYE extravangza is no longer under threat.