PLEASE AVOID THIS VENUE AT ALL COSTS! PLEASE READ!!!
PLEASE AVOID THIS VENUE AT ALL COSTS!
PLEASE AVOID THIS VENUE AT ALL COSTS!
PLEASE AVOID THIS VENUE AT ALL COSTS!
PLEASE AVOID THIS VENUE AT ALL COSTS!
PLEASE AVOID THIS VENUE AT ALL COSTS!
Myself and my party visited your venue on the 09/08/2025 for my own personal wedding shower, we spent over £1000 in your venue and hired the two back tables, this event had been planned months ahead and we were very much looking forward to spending the evening with you.
We arrived at your venue just after 4pm initially and your bar staff, your venue staff and the experience was really lovely, my party were already there and I arrived as the groom of a wedding shower and was really happy with the service, we paid for a lot of food and drink and spent a lot of money for the night with you.
We were then leaving the venue and had the same tables booked in the evening and this is when things changed at your venue and had the worst experience, so much so myself and my whole party will never return.
When we returned, your security staff were absolutely disgusting, I arrived in the same outfit i was welcomed into as a gay groom in a wedding party and I had a had that said 'groom' on which was clearly not hat and was there for decorative/photographic purposes. I had this on all day at your venue and when i came back in the evening your bar staff and venue staff were totally ok with me wearing the hat or only wearing it for decorative/photo purposes and your security staff were so rude and condescending upon us entering again yet we agreed to only wear this for decorative purposes (even though this was cleared with your staff and we paid a lot of money to be there)
As the night went on, your security staff allowed people to enter the bar in beanie hats and caps (we have photographic evidence and timestamps of this happening) with no issue at all, they allowed people on the dancefloor with foghorns jumping around the floor and bothering other guests and also allowed men to approach my wedding party (all of this will be on your CCTV and we have documented this with our own video and photographic evidence which i am ore than happy to provide to you).
Once again after other people being allowed in with beanie hats and other hats (again i will provide this evidence), your security guard then came over to me and was absolutely disgusting in his approach to me and threatened me because I had my wedding hat on which was of no threat or violation to any of your staff. I then said to your security guard it was starting to feel personal because we had been spoken to in a condescending manner multiple times and as a result your security guard put his hands on me and grabbed me like I was some sort of trouble maker... might I add you had men approaching women and a man on the dancefloor blowing a foghorn to everyone in the bar yet me the gay boy who was with a group of girls was grabbed and threatened because i asked and explained this felt personal because of the experiences of the night.
At this point one of my friends put his arm over me to protect me as in my whole parties opinion your security guard was being totally physical and hurting me for no reason other than me asking a question. Your security guard then grabbed my friend and attempted to get into an altercation with him, to which my maid of honour (my friends wife) intervened and told your security guard to get off her husband. Your 'professional' security guard then threatened to 'lay out' my friends wife and proceeded to call me homophobic names such as 'batty boy' and 'i take it up the ass'... this continued as we were leaving the venue and i replied the same thing to your security guard outside and said maybe he does the same, this was Infront of o2 staff outside of the slug and lettuce at this point.
There was absolutely no reason for your security to behave and act the way they did and as a result of the events that unfolded I can only come to the conclusion that this was a personal homophobic attack on me as my sexuality was mentioned and I was the only person in the bar that was continuously berated for putting on a hat when i had a pink blazer on and was clearly celebrating gay wedding....when other more big built guys were allowed in your venue by security (who had hats on and looked far more intimating that a slim short gay man who had a pear hat on that said 'groom')... your security guards homophobic comments further confirmed this for me.
Not only are we bruised and have small cuts from this as a result of being grabbed and pulled (for no apparent reason) I'm also shaken to return to the o2 arena and I am taking legal advice over these events as i am local and this venue is somewhere i love. Homophobic abuse or discrimination in any form is not ok and is wrong, in any industry. We as a community are suffering a lot at the moment and to see this translate into your industry is awful.
We ended up in an alternative bar with our decorations and hat who welcomed us with open arms and treated us with more respect and care in 10 minutes than we got in the whole evening with your security staff, ask yourself this.... if we were so disobedient would your o2 staff who came to address the situation and other bars would have allowed us in to finish our wedding shower (when we should have never had to leave given this had been planned for months at the cost of over £1k).
I cannot and will not leave this and i want your security guard along with you protocol held accountable, i have spoken to my local media who are very interested once looking at the photos of men in hats and beanies being allowed and a petite gay man in a small novelty groom hat being treated the way I have been treated. My friend simply put his hand in to avoid me being hurt and your security guard put his hands on him and has physically assaulted him and then threatened his wife with violence and encouraged her to hit him so he could 'lay her out'
If you do not acknowledge this i will go to every social media platform, every outlet and and i have a group who are absolutely disgusted by what has happened and are more than happy to come and protest outside your venue to highlight the disgusting treatment of your security team we are that disgusted by everything.
I will add that no one behind your bar or in the venue itself were in any way out of turn or disrespectful, in fact your actual team were very kind, considerate and made the day special, your security team are barbaric and need to be held accountable for the assault on three people and threatening a woman who has been in contact with your team and built a relationship with your team for many months now. I would like you to speak to your team and ask about the interactions my party had and in particular the lady who organised this (as i can guarantee you that you will find nothing but positive interactions and upmost professionalism, we paid a lot of money for this evening).
I will not tolerate abuse, homophobia or threats abuse to any females and i will take this as far as i can, legally, socially and professionally. The lady that organised this evening over many months put a lot of love and care into this night, paid a lot of money, had many positive interactions with your staff and this whole event had ruined my pre wedding celebrations and upset my wedding party. On top of this its totally humiliating for us.
I would like to understand why your security think its ok to allow men in with beanie hats, caps and have men on the dance floor intimating others but as a gay man who is with a group of girls your male security staff think its ok to discriminate against us and think its acceptable to be physical to the point I am not suffering and my best friends are also suffering too.
Any interaction we had with your bully security staff was out of self defence and to stop your bully men putting their hands on us for no apparent reason other than being discriminatory and I have no reason to believe other than them being homophobic and personal given their language and actions towards us.
This needs to be addressed and this needs to be sorted by your staff, we paid a lot of money for this evening and your security staff have totally and utterly ruined the experience for us, I would not have paid this amount of money with your bar if i knew this would happen. Your staff bullied a gay boy celebrating a gay wedding with a party of mainly girls and allowed men in the venue who were intimidating and also wearing attire which goes against your 'code' and assaulted and put their hands on us in the process.
It will be very interesting to tell everyone that a gay boy in a pearl groom hat was discriminated/assaulted and not only told it went against your code but also your security allowed multiple men to wear more intimating attire such as beanie hats covering the face and men blowing huge foghorns at people... i have photo and video evidence of all of this and unless you address this and come to a resolution i will be sharing this publicly online as well as on my podcast and also going to the media regarding this.
Do better, train your security team and do not be misogynistic/homophobic against innocent customers who trusted your venue to celebrate a very important event for your staff to totally ruin this and add to the fear that homophobia is very much real and present, particularly in your establishment.