Duchess , Battersea

This place is a Joke

A friend of mine hired out this venue for her birthday, she booked it almost 3 months ago and it was a nightmare from the start.

They firstly told her that they would be able to get her a late licence, but did explain that if they couldn't then she could have the room from 5pm. My friend was happy with this paid her deposit and was told she had to pay the rest on the day of her party. We discovered that the bar was not able to get the late licence (If you ask me they never even tried) and to top it of found out that the manager hired the room out before her party. This other event was to finish at 4.30 and hers was meant to start at 5 � a half hour window to clear, clear and revive the venue for our party. When she questioned this, the managers reaction was �it won�t be a problem - we have enough staff and we will be able to turn the room around in no time�.

When we got there at 5pm the sign for that room still had the old party's name on it they were massively understaffed for the size of the venue. The room up stairs had not been cleaned, there was glass all over the floor, fag butts all over the terrace, the upstairs bar was not open and no member of staff even came up to talk to us. When I finally found someone to talk to on my friends behalf, all I was told was that they were busy.

The upstairs bar was not opened to an hour after our party started and due to a so called celebrity party they were having downstairs it took us over half an hour to get a drink from the down stairs bar while we waited for the upstairs bar to open. When this bar opened there was no ice and only one member of staff to look after us all (despite all this, she was very helpful).

Our room was not cleaned, only the empty glasses were cleared, so we had to stay in that room all night long with broken glass on the floor.

As the night went on, and as they had no security at all in the bar and a manager who truly does not know how to run a bar, we repeatedly had people coming upstairs trying to join the party and sitting out on the terrace. We had to keep kindly asking people to leave as it was a private party - surely not our responsibility considering my friend had paid to hire out that room. Just as the party was getting into full swing, everyone was really having a great time, we had trouble from a bunch of local's, that apparently drink in that pub all the time, who decided to gate crash our party. One guy bottled one of the guys we were with (our DJ) and punched another in the face, entirely unprovoked and purely for the reason that they couldn�t join our �private� party. Something you don't expect on a night out and something you most definitely don't expect if you pay to hire a venue.

The most upsetting thing was the staff didn't phone the police or do anything at all to control the situation or even help. It was some of the guests that were upstairs who had to phone the police. The impression that the manager portrayed was that he wanted us out of his pub as quickly as possible, and wanted absolutely nothing to do with the �situation�. Now bearing in mind the situation was caused by a number of his regulars you would imagine that he would have been slightly more concerned about trying to resolve the situation.

This bar is more trouble then what its worth. Understaffed, bad food and a lack of good management (scratch that � appalling management). The only good thing going for it is it interior design!!!! I certainly would not recommend this venue to anybody and suggest that its only decent asset, the barmaid who served us, would move onto another establishment where her efforts would be appreciated.

1 Sep 2009 15:28