A café in London's 'mini Korea' has been refused permission to expand and help the neighbourhood become a bigger tourist attraction after admitting it has been running a karaoke bar without permission.

601pm, on New Malden High Street, applied to Kingston Council to have two upstairs karaoke rooms and extend its opening hours to 1:30am, but the council's licensing committee threw out the application after ruling customers leaving later would add to nuisance in the area.

The business had applied to extend its opening hours and booze sales to between 9am and 1:30am on Mondays to Saturdays, and 10am to 1:30am on Sundays. Applicant Hyun Jun Kim said 601pm had already been using the two rooms upstairs for karaoke since the previous business moved out earlier this year at a licensing hearing on 18 June.

The Met Police objected to the café extending its hours, while the council's environmental protection officer raised concerns about the full application.

Millicent Wild, the police's legal representative, said staff from New Malden Methodist Church had raised concerns over 'property damage, noise, loitering, littering and urination' if the extension was granted, while residents had expressed concerns about customers causing nuisance due to being unable to leave the area easily at night as it had 'limited transport options'.

Richard Odell, the council's environmental protection officer, argued the business wanted to become a 'late-night drinking venue'. He said the hours requested far exceeded council policy for the 'quiet' area and claimed, while the authority had not had direct noise complaints about the venue, the extension would likely 'bring about an increase in noise and potential public nuisance'.

A Kingston Council officer argued against 601pm's plans, saying the new hours would likely cause noise and public nuisance complaints along New Malden's High Street. (Photo: Charlotte Lillywhite/LDRS)

Ji Su, representing 601pm, said the business wanted to expand to share Korean culture with a wider customer base.

She said: "We are relatively new on the high street… I grew up in the area, so I saw a lot of these Korean restaurants and some of these old-school Korean cafés pop up and, a long time ago, some Korean bars as well and I've seen them come, I've seen them go, I've seen some stay, and I think it's really important to realise that… our community, which is known as one of the biggest Korean communities outside of Korea itself, has started to become almost an attraction to a lot of people with the rise of Korean culture."

Regarding the plans, she added: "I think it would be really important in helping our community develop a good tourist profile. So although we have started as a localised business, I don't think it's a far-fetched reach for us to be able to dream of a future where we get a lot of business or we get customers visiting from perhaps places that are further to reach."

New Malden is known as London's 'Korea town' as it is home to the largest known population of Koreans in Europe, most of whom are South Koreans. Koreans were originally drawn to the area around the 1970s after the South Korean embassy moved nearby, along with Samsung's European headquarters.

Ms Su said the business has taken measures to prevent customers causing any issues, including setting a maximum volume on the karaoke machines and soundproofing the venue.

She added the current customer base was very local, meaning they were in walking or a bus journey's distance from the premises, although it would like to grow in the future.

But a report on the committee's decision to refuse the plans said the business had failed to comply with existing conditions on its licence, including the 'unlawful use of the upstairs rooms for karaoke'. The committee was not reassured, the report added, that appropriate measures had been put in place to soundproof the upstairs area as it shares a wall with residential homes.

The committee also raised concerns customers leaving the café would cause nuisance in the area if it stayed open until 1.30am, with the requested hours far exceeding council policy. The report said: "The extended hours sought would result in customers remaining in the town centre longer as the premises would be the, or one of, the latest premises in the town centre.

"With customers either walking home or loitering in the town centre or taking a night bus or a taxi or Uber, the customers leaving the premises would add to cumulative impact at this time of night in this area of New Malden."

The business' current opening hours are 8:30am to 11pm on Mondays to Thursdays, 8:30am to 12am on Fridays and Saturdays and 10am to 6pm on Sundays.