Mossman and myself to state that the only option left to us was to apply for D2 status (arts, culture and entertainment) for the entire building, thus ensuring that even if the Vortex itself could not operate there, the building would remain in use as a cultural centre for the local community. The meeting ended in deadlock.

Over the following weekend both Mossman and myself were of town, but on our return on the Monday we were shocked to find new locks on the doors and boards on the building advertising the first floor for rent as an A3 cafe/wine bar. On contacting Midda's estate agents, we were told that the premises were on offer for £10,000 p.a. outside the Landlord and Tenants Act. 

Despite knowing that the licence gave no security, Mossman then got in touch with Midda, offering him £15,000 p.a., knowing that for that sum he could afford to run the club and pay the musicians some kind of decent living wage. He was told to forget any idea of ever being given the lease and was ordered to vacate the building immediately (but was later given just three days to clear the premises of what amounted to twenty years' accumulated equipment, junk and ephemera: the grand piano being the largest, the Vortex cat being the hardest, and the valuable kitchen cooker quite simply proving too much work to even contemplate). London's 'listening jazz club', of British jazz, had finally been forced to close.

Meanwhile, despite Midda's claim at the meeting of 4 May that the building was 'a death trap', and his later having submitted a survey to Hackney Council which declared the floor to be unsafe, no effort has been made by him to remedy the problem. He has now leased the venue to new tenants who wanted to open it as The Vortex - a sophisticated jazz and soul lounge bar'.

The D2 application is currently being considered by Hackney Council, while Midda, having looked into (and presumably found) possible loopholes, has informed them that in the event of the application being aproved, he could convert the building into a casino. However, throughout the absurdly lengthy conflict, during which I have sometimes wondered whether I might have slipped into Alice's Wonderland, I have never lost faith that in the end reason will win through.

The loss of the Vortex to the cultural value of Church Street is incalculable; it was the heart and soul of what has always been regarded as a street that wears its independence proudly. How long will it be before it is consumed by one-dimensional blandness?

Equally incalculable is the loss to the jazz community who saw the venue as their centre: if you weren't playing there, you could hang out, talk over new projects or just dream. In the few months that the Vortex has been closed, some £40,000 has been lost in income by musicians whose livelihood is at the best of times precarious, which is to say nothing of the loss of a venue whose uniqueness was in its encouragement to musicians to play their own in their own way. When Mossman spoke of the Vortex as 'our home', he was talking for hundreds of musicians from across the globe who, like their audiences, knew that it was a place in which they could relax and be themselves. But the dream isn't over.

Should Hackney Council award D2 status to the building, I can only trust that Midda will have the good grace (or plain common sense) to finally respect the wishes both of the local and of the jazz community. The local community wants it: two and a half thousand signatures can't be dismissed lightly, and that's only the tip of the iceberg. We have the will, we have the talent and it now even looks as if we might have the finance. There's only one thing in our way. Can personal profit really be more important than genuine public concerns? Over to you, Richard.

N16 has tried to contact Richard Midda to ask him if he would like to read and comment on this article before publication. At the time of going to press, we have had no reply.