Labour Councillors in Finsbury Park Ward have reacted with fury to an application to turn the former Red Rose Comedy Club in Seven Sisters Road into a strip club.

The Club is now called “Club Imperial” and the new owners have submitted an application to Islington Council to have the Club licensed for “striptease and fully nude tableside dancing”.

People can support our campaign to stop the strip club here: http://www.islington-labour.org.uk/no-strip-club

Councillor Phil Kelly said: “We have to stop these sleaze merchants preying on our community. Finsbury Park seems to have been singled out as a soft target by operators of gambling arcades and disreputable clubs. Club Imperial already has a poor reputation among its neighbours for late night disturbances and turning it in to a strip club will attract even more undesirable elements.

"The community in Finsbury Park is looking to a better future now that we have had improvements to social housing. We are working together. A strip club would send entirely the wrong message to children and young people who live a few yards away, and I am sure that many women – and men – will find the idea as offensive as I do.”

“I expect that many people will be writing to the Council’s licensing team to object. The deadline for this is January 6. On Saturday December 19, at 12, we are organising a demonstration outside the club so that people can join us to show the strength of feeling in the local community.”