Pitcher & Piano, Swansea
Marson’s instructed Sustainable Acoustics to assess and set the control measures for the generation of amplified music in the outside terrace in the premises known as Pitcher & Piano. The exercise was completed in response to the service of an abatement notice by Swansea City Council. The assessment also considered the noise levels inside the venue to balance the customer experience and consider the impact on staff.
The area of Wind Street is Swansea’s late-night vibrant area, and higher levels of music are therefore tolerated here than elsewhere due to it being considered as part of the entertainment vibrancy in this area. The premises have been operated on the terrace, with music, late into the night (to midnight in accordance with their licence, and to 2 am under Temporary Event notices) for a number of years. It was understood that a complainant in flats in Salubrious Place led Environmental Health to investigate the level of music noise output. As a result of this process, a statutory nuisance was witnessed, and eventually, an abatement notice was served on the recurrence of the complaint.
Consultation with Environmental Health on-site suggested that they were aware of the late-night music character of the area, which is dominated by music from a number of late-night premises. They agreed not to enforce the notice whilst this exercise was being carried out to identify and set a suitable level for the area.
The inside of the venue also contains a dance floor and has its doors open to allow people to flow between the terrace and the inside space. Therefore consideration of the inside levels was also necessary to allow adequate control of the music noise break-out.
Since the service of the abatement notice, the terrace had not been used for music.
