NIGHTCLUB owners who wanted to open a lapdancing club are hoping to build bridges with the community - by offering live tennis and cream teas during Wimbledon fortnight.
A giant screen is being installed for the tournament in The Crescent in West Kensington. Residents and office workers are being encouraged to treat the champagne bar as their own TV lounge.
Neighbours who live within 100 metres of the former pub will also be offered a permanent discount of two drinks for the price of one.
The charm offensive is aimed at making amends for late-night noise around residential North End Crescent.
But plans to extend The Crescent's opening hours to 5am three days a week have gone down unfavourably with campaigners.
They successfully fought off the lapdancing bid earlier this year, and hundreds of fresh complaints about the club are believed to have since been lodged with Hammersmith and Fulham Council.
Owner Mark Wale admitted the club had made a mistake over the lapdancing bid, but is now hoping to get on a better footing with the community.
"We need the residents to be a part of this place," he said.
"It's their area and we don't want them to be up in arms forever.
"We're not the monster everyone thinks we are."
Details of a string of alleged incidents were revealed in council licensing papers last week, including one in April in which 100 revellers tried to gatecrash the club in the early hours.
Mr Wale blamed the incident on an unreliable promoter and claimed the arrival of The Crescent had improved the neighbourhood.
"You're going to get some trouble here and there - it's the nature of the business," he said.
"But we've never had a fight inside the club and we've never had one outside.
"There are 44 cameras around the outside of the building. If you came here on any night before the club was built there were kids selling drugs openly, and the police knew it.
"We've completely cleared up this area."
Campaigner Patsy Heavey, of Stonor Road, who collected a petition opposing the lapdancing bid, said: "I don't think anybody feels any ill-will towards the club, but operating to a 5am licence or even a 2am licence is going to cause problems.
"I don't know how they're going to reconcile that.
"A lot of people used to go to the pub to watch football before it was taken over, but I don't know how many Wimbledon fans there are in that area of West Kensington."
