Who is Amy Lamé? All you need to know about Sadiq Khan’s first night czar
The job advert caused a stir when it went up.
An exciting proposition: Could you be the one to turn London into a true 24-hour city?
Well, Sadiq Khan thinks Amy Lamé is the woman to do it.
She'll work 2.5 days a week for £35,000. Not bad. The advert for the position said Khan was after someone who could show "proven leadership ability, public profile and convening power, plus a thorough understanding of the night time economy and the ability to work in a political environment".
As for specific duties, creating a vision for London as a 24-hour city is a must and creating a road map of how that'll be realised.
So just who is Amy Lamé?
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She's originally from New Jersey, arriving in the capital in 1992 where her first job was in a late night café-bar in Soho
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She has significant experience of the nighttime economy (as you'd hope), having built her career in the industry over the past two decades
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Lamé co-founded and hosted Olivier award-winning art company and club night Duckie
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She also co-founded HomoLab, a weekly queer cultural and current affairs podcast
- She co-founded and chairs RVT Future, a voluntary LGBT+ group which was set up to preserve the Royal Vauxhall Tavern after it was threatened with closure last year
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She's also a writer, TV and radio presenter: co-presenting alongside Danny Baker for a decade on BBC London 94.9 show
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She DJs at clubs across the capital
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From 2010-2011 Lamé was Mayoress of Camden, promoting the Borough's range of live music venues and nightclubs, as well as working with the local authority
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Her first initiative as the night czar will be planning a series of monthly night surgeries, where she'll be out and about in the evening, canvassing views to get a wide-ranging perspective on what Londoners already think of the nighttime economy
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She's also had the time to pen a book among all that, which she describes as the first LGBT+ history book for children, out in June next year
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Lamé said:
It’s a privilege to be London’s very first night czar. I can’t wait to hit the streets and have loads of ideas of what I can do for revellers, night-time workers, businesses and stakeholders. For too long, the capital’s night-time industry has been under pressure – music venues and nightclubs in particular are closing at an alarming rate.