Liam O’Hare has over 30 years experience in the hospitality industry. His relevant experience and achievements include:
Operational Background
2018 - present Licensing lead for LabTech Investments responsible for the successful application of 25 premises licenses and 25 Shadow licenses for the 565,000 sq ft mixed use development Hawley Wharf sat inside Camden Towns Cumulative Impact Area. Day to day responsibility for the upkeep and maintenance of 88 licenses across the 30 acre estate in Camden Town and Holborn.
In 2017 re opened The Blue Posts Public House in Rupert Street with my business partners from The End, a beautiful restoration of a Soho institution.
2012-2017 Liam practised licensing full time.
In 2009 Liam founded Shake It, a series of warehouse parties featuring World class international and homegrown DJ talent to play one off parties in yet-to-be-occupied spaces. These varied in size from 250 to 3500 in capacity, with each venue requiring a one off license for the events, and some subsequently becoming established venues. The unique nature of these events required close working with SAGs, licensing authorities, police and residents. Shake It toured internationally and hosted several tents at SW7 Clapham Common in 2012.
General Manager and Director of Operations of The End Nightclub and AKA Cocktail bar, West Central Street, London Borough of Camden from December 1995 – Jan 2009. Winners of multiple national and international awards.
Holder and DPS of Camden’s first 24-7-365 License from August 2005 to January 2009. This was Liam’s first licence application made without professional support. Licence granted and operated without incident or review until the lease was sold back to the landlord.
Licensee, April 1992 as General Manager of The Old Fire Station Restaurant, Waterloo. Winners of the Evening Standard Bar of the Year 1990, Time Out Restaurant of the Year 1991 (runner up).
Manager, Jugglers Arms, Leathermarket St, Bermondsey, September 1992.
Bartender at Hawley Arms, Camden Town from April 1990-July 1991. - Love affair with Camden begins.
Industry Leadership and Contribution
Contributor and supporter of City of London & London Drugs Policy Forum supported “Safer Nightlife” Russell Webster (2008) and its predecessor “Safer Nightlife”. Russell Webster 2008, Home Office and the London Drugs Policy Forum launched both initiatives at The End & AKA.
Leading The End as it innovated customer care at a time when it was considered controversial. In response to consumer testing, The End launched in 1995 with a free water fountain, which is now reflected in mandatory licence conditions. The club also launched with recovery rooms for distressed customers, which again is now an industry standard. The End hosted over 4000 nights and almost 3,500,000 visitors. We operated throughout this period with a clean licensing record.
Management Committee member of BEDA (Bars, Entertainment and Dancing Association) 1997 – 2012. We were consulted on the Public Entertainments Licenses (Drug Misuse) Act 1997 (the Barry Legg Bill). Consulted on the Green Paper and White Paper for the Licensing Act 2003 by ACPO, Home Office, DCMS. BEDA contributed to Home Office initiative Safer Nightlife and its predecessor Safe Clubbing. BEDA was also involved in glass ban campaigns across the country and involved in numerous studies involving PRS/PPL licensing. BEDA was the industry body representing the evening and night time economy (ENTE) industries’ interests at policy and legislative level and was a powerful lobby group for over 1300 bars, nightclubs, student unions and late night venues across the UK at its peak in 2004 merging with the ALMR in 2012.
Since 2009 Liam has been on the accreditation panel of Purple Flag (PF). PF is an Association of Town Centre Managers (ATCM). It is an accreditation scheme that recognises excellence in the place management of Town centres and city centres at night. There are over 90 Purple Flag towns and cities across the UK and Ireland. Purple Flag awards those excelling in standards across 5 core standards, Policy Envelope (Joined up after hours policy, clear strategy, public policy), Wellbeing, Movement, Appeal, Place.
Professional Licensing
Liam worked with notable East London Venues from 2010 including Village Underground (Licence and recruitment) Oval Space (Licence and recruitment) Pickle Factory (Licence, recruitment and managing security and managers) Red Gallery (Licence and recruitment) Lime Wharf ( Licence and recruitment).
Since 2012 Liam has worked on a freelance basis, with involvement in many pop up projects, notably:
London’s first Night Market “Red Market” taking 25,000 sq feet of derelict land in Hackney’s Special Policy area (proving genuinely exceptional circumstances to policy) and Shoreditch’s only free to access public space for a street food and local arts festival before, during and after the Olympics.
The Magic Roundabout located in the Islington Cumulative Impact Zone on top of Old Street Roundabout. The project was able to demonstrate genuinely exceptional circumstances to policy and ran for 3 years until January 2019 when the roundabout was redeveloped.
Since 2018 Liam has been head of Licensing Strategy & Compliance at LabTech Investments. LabTech owns and manages 20-acres of prime real estate across Camden Market and the West End and holds an interest in over 100 licenses.