Carol Abercrombie decries the loss of one of Hertfordshire's most popular venues.

One of the most atmospheric music venues in the Three Counties has closed its doors for the final time.

The Blue Note Jazz Club in Hemel Hempstead Old Town Hall has been running in the cellar bar for the last 12 years but now modern legislation has caught up with it.

Laws on disabled access mean that Dacorum Borough Council has decided it can no longer operate there. The council is redeveloping the rest of the Old Town Hall venue but says it’s not possible to provide disabled access to the cellar bar.

The Blue Note Jazz Club.

I discovered the club rather late in its life, earlier this year, after meeting some friends who’d been going for years.

We fell in love with it straight away; with its low ceilings, intimate bar and small dance floor it was just what a jazz club should be. But on our third visit, the promoter announced to the shocked regulars that he’d been told it would have to close.

That was at the end of January. In the few months since that news broke, every event in the cellar bar has had a special atmosphere but none more so than the final dates on Friday 5th and Saturday 6th April. They involved two bands that had both played at the venue in the early days and continued to come back even though they had achieved wider fame.

Friday night saw the return of Tony Remy who was just starting his career more than a decade ago when he was first booked in the Old Town Hall. He has become one of the world’s most exciting guitar players since then and toured and recorded with the likes of Courtney Pine, Simply Red and most recently Craig David. www.tonyremy.com

The Blue Note closes it's doors for the last time.

The Santana tribute band, ‘Viva Santana’, played the farewell gig on Saturday and had the dance floor rocking for most of the evening with a mix of rock, latin and jazz music. It was a great way to say goodbye to a favourite venue tucked away in an unlikely spot in the heart of Hemel Hempstead. www.vivasantana.com

The former barman and also a regular Les Wood said: "It was very short-sighted of the council to close a venue like this. Surely there must have been some way around the legislation to keep this unique place open."

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