Lincoln Jazz Café Terms & Conditions

Last updated 5 November 2026

1. About us and these terms

1.1 Lincoln Jazz Café is run by Lincoln Jazz Cafe Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales (company number 14082189). Our registered office and venue is 6 Water Lane, Lincoln, LN1 1TY. Our VAT registration number is 431 1844 23.

1.2 You can reach us at mail@lincolnjazzcafe.co.uk or on 01522 525 526 during opening hours.

1.3 These terms apply when you visit us, book a table, buy event tickets, pre-order a platter or other item, buy a gift card, or hire the venue. Please read the section that applies to you. By booking or buying from us you agree to these terms.

1.4 Nothing in these terms takes away your legal rights as a consumer. If anything here conflicts with the law, the law wins.

2. Visiting us

2.1 Opening hours. Monday to Wednesday: closed. Thursday and Friday: 5pm to midnight. Saturday: 2pm to midnight. Sunday: 5pm to 9pm. Last drink orders are at 11.30pm on nights we close at midnight. Event nights and private hire may change these times, and we will show any change on our website.

2.2 Age. We welcome guests aged 14 and over when they are with an adult. Under 18s need to leave by 9pm. The exception is ticketed events: under 18s with a ticket may stay until the event ends, as long as they are with an adult the whole time. Some events may have their own age limit, and we will say so on the event listing.

2.3 Alcohol. We follow Challenge 25. If you look under 25, we will ask for ID before serving you alcohol. We accept a passport, a photo driving licence or a PASS card. We will not serve alcohol to anyone under 18, or to anyone buying for someone under 18, or to anyone who appears drunk. Drinks bought here must not be taken off the premises.

2.4 Behaviour and right of admission. We are a small, relaxed room, and we want everyone (guests, staff and musicians) to enjoy the night. We may refuse entry or service, or ask someone to leave, if they are aggressive, abusive, drunk, disruptive or unsafe, or if they break the law or our licence conditions. If you are asked to leave for one of these reasons, you won’t get a refund for that visit. On Sundays and at some listening events we ask guests to keep chatter down while the musicians play.

2.5 Dress code. Smart casual is perfect. Please don’t wear clothing or slogans that are offensive, discriminatory or inflammatory.

2.6 Dogs. Dogs are welcome in our covered outdoor area during normal opening hours. Assistance dogs are welcome inside. The outdoor area may be closed during some events.

2.7 Payment. At the venue we take card and contactless payments only, including mobile payments. We don’t take cash. Online, you can pay by card through Square or with PayPal. We don’t add a service charge. Tips are optional.

2.8 Prices. Our prices include VAT where it applies. The prices at the bar on the night are the ones that count, unless you have already paid for something online.

2.9 Lost property. We keep lost items for 30 days. Please contact us to arrange collection. After that we may donate or dispose of them.

2.10 CCTV. We use CCTV inside and around the venue for safety and to prevent crime. We keep recordings for 30 days, unless we need them for an incident. See our Privacy Policy.

3. Table bookings

3.1 You can book a table online through our booking system (resOS) or by contacting us. Our largest table seats 9. For bigger groups, please contact us.

3.2 Live music charge: £3.50 per person, payable when booking your table. It applies to events and nights where it is shown at booking. Live music nights vary, so it isn’t tied to fixed days of the week. We always show it clearly, with the total, before you confirm your booking. If it isn’t shown when you book, you don’t pay it. If you cancel at least 48 hours before your booking, we will refund it. If you cancel later or don’t turn up, we won’t.

3.3 Time slots. Standard bookings are for 2 hours, and groups of 7 or more get 3 hours, unless we tell you otherwise when you book. If nobody else has booked the table after you, you are welcome to stay longer.

3.4 Arriving late. We hold your table for 15 minutes after your booking time. If you are more than 15 minutes late and haven’t told us, we may give the table to other guests. If you are running late, please call us on 01522 525 526 or message us, and we will do our best to help.

3.5 Changing or cancelling. Please use the link in your booking confirmation (email or text), or contact us. Please give at least 24 hours’ notice.

3.6 Groups of 7 or more: card details and no-show fee. When you book a table for 7 or more people online, our booking system (resOS) asks for card details to secure the booking. The card is checked through resOS’s payment provider, Stripe, but no money is taken when you book. We will only charge that card if your group doesn’t turn up, or if you cancel less than 24 hours before your booking time. The no-show fee is £5 per guest booked (for example, £40 for a table of 8). The exact amount and the cancellation deadline are shown before you confirm, and in your confirmation. If you cancel at least 24 hours before your booking time, there is no charge. If we cancel your booking, there is no charge.

3.7 Smaller tables. We don’t ask for card details or charge a no-show fee for tables of 6 or fewer, unless it is shown when you book (for example, for a special event).

3.8 Booking a table does not include food. Platters are pre-ordered separately (see section 5).

4. Event tickets

4.1 We sell tickets for our live music and other events on our website. Each ticket gives one person entry to the event and a seat at a table.

4.2 Seating. Tables are allocated on a first come, first served basis. You can add seating requests in the notes at checkout, and we will do our best to meet them, but we can’t guarantee specific seats. Guests who book a single ticket may share a table. If you want to sit with friends who booked separately, put their booking name in the notes, or email us at least 48 hours before the event.

4.3 Times. Each event listing shows when the doors open and when the music starts. We hold your table for 15 minutes after the start time. If you arrive later than that, we can’t guarantee you a seat. We won’t refund tickets if you arrive late or don’t come.

4.4 No 14-day cooling-off period. Event tickets are for a leisure service on a specific date. This means the 14-day right to cancel under the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 does not apply.

4.5 If you can’t come. We don’t give refunds if you change your mind. You are welcome to pass your ticket on to anyone else, free of charge. You don’t need to tell us. They just need to show the ticket on arrival. The live music charge on a table booking can still be refunded if you cancel at least 48 hours before (see 3.2).

4.6 Resale. If you sell your ticket on, please don’t charge more than you paid. Under UK law, anyone reselling tickets online must give certain details about the ticket.

4.7 If we cancel or move an event. We will tell you as soon as we can, using the contact details from your booking. You can choose a full refund of everything you paid us for that event (tickets, live music charge and pre-ordered items), or a transfer to the new date or another event. We’ll make any refund within 14 days, back to the card you paid with.

4.8 Line-up changes. Live music sometimes changes. A musician might be ill, or a band member might be replaced by another player. If the headline act changes, or the event changes in a big way, we will tell you and offer you a full refund if you don’t want to come. We don’t refund small changes, such as a change to set times or a single band member.

4.9 Events outside our control. Sometimes an event can’t go ahead because of something we can’t reasonably prevent, such as severe weather, a power cut, a flood or an order from the authorities. We will still offer you a refund or a transfer, as in 4.7. We aren’t responsible for other costs you’ve paid, such as travel or hotels.

5. Sharing platters and other pre-orders

5.1 Platters. Our sharing platters are made by us and must be pre-ordered online at least 48 hours before your visit. They are served Thursday to Sunday. They are designed for sharing, not as a full meal.

5.2 A platter isn’t a table booking. Please book your table or event ticket separately. Add the date and time of your visit in the order notes so we can match your order.

5.3 Pre-ordered drinks. Pre-ordered champagne and wine is available at the discount shown at the time of ordering.

5.4 Cancelling pre-orders. If you cancel more than 72 hours before your visit, we will give you a full refund. If you cancel within 72 hours, we can’t refund you, because we will already have bought and prepared the ingredients. The exception is items worth £50 or more that we sourced specially for you, which we can’t refund once we have ordered them; we will tell you when you order if this applies. If we cancel the event or can’t serve your order, we will refund you in full.

5.5 Allergens. We prepare food in a small shared bar area and cannot control allergen cross-contamination. We do not offer gluten-free or allergen-free dishes, and we cannot safely cater for coeliac disease or a food allergy. Leaving items off a platter as a preference does not make the food suitable for allergy or coeliac disease. Our platters may contain milk (cheese), sesame, celery, cereals containing gluten (including wheat), mustard, sulphites, nuts and exotic fruit. Platter contents can change, so please ask a member of staff for full allergen details before you order and on the day.

The 14 allergens that UK law requires us to tell you about are: celery, cereals containing gluten (such as wheat, rye, barley and oats), crustaceans, eggs, fish, lupin, milk, molluscs, mustard, tree nuts (such as almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts, cashews, pecans, Brazil nuts, pistachios and macadamia nuts), peanuts, sesame, soya, and sulphur dioxide and sulphites. Our team can tell you which of these are used as ingredients in your order.

Cross-contamination. Our platters are prepared in a small shared bar area where all of these allergens may be handled, and we use shared equipment and surfaces. Because we cannot control cross-contamination, we cannot provide an allergen-free or gluten-free dish. If you need a free-from meal for allergy, intolerance or coeliac disease, we cannot safely cater for that.

5.6 We may change platter contents slightly depending on what is available, but we will keep to the same type and value. If a change affects an allergy you have told us about, we will contact you first.

6. Gift cards

6.1 Our gift cards are sold online through Gift Up, in amounts from £20 to £300, and are sent by email or can be printed. Where you can use your gift card is set out in the terms shown when you buy it.

6.2 Any expiry date is shown in the terms when you buy your gift card. If you don’t spend the whole balance at once, the rest stays on the card for next time.

6.3 Gift cards can’t be exchanged for cash, and we can’t give change for them. Please treat them like cash. If one is lost or stolen, we can only replace it if you can show us the original purchase email and the card hasn’t been used.

6.4 If you buy a gift card online, you can cancel it within 14 days of buying it for a full refund, as long as it hasn’t been used.

6.5 If a gift card code doesn’t work when you book tickets online, email mail@lincolnjazzcafe.co.uk and we will sort it out.

7. Private hire

7.1 You can hire the venue for private and corporate events, subject to availability and our agreement. Private hire is available Monday to Friday for the full day and on Sunday mornings and afternoons. Saturday is not available. We will confirm the details of each booking in writing, and those details form part of these terms.

7.2 Capacity. We can hold 30 guests seated with live music, 36 seated without live music, or 42 with mixed seating and standing and no live music. You must stay within these numbers.

7.3 Charges.

• A venue hire fee may apply on some days and for corporate events. It is charged per hour and must be paid to secure the date.
• A minimum spend deposit is charged per person. You can use it against drinks on the night, and we will refund any unused balance after the event as agreed in your booking confirmation.
• All payments are due 4 weeks before the event.

7.4 Cancelling. Please cancel in writing (email is fine).

• More than 8 weeks before: full refund, except the venue hire fee.
• 8 weeks or less before: we keep the venue hire fee and payments for food, entertainment and anything else we have already arranged. We will refund the minimum spend deposit if we manage to rebook the date.

7.5 Timings. Your start time is when guests arrive. Up to 4 people can come in 30 minutes early to set up. Last orders are at 11.30pm and we close at midnight.

7.6 Food, drink and suppliers. You can’t bring your own food or drink unless we agree it in advance. Food is provided by us or arranged through us. Any outside suppliers, live music or playlists must be agreed with us in advance, with playlists sent at least 1 week before the event. We decide on the volume.

7.7 Decorations and care of the venue. Please don’t use glitter, loose confetti or tinsel. If anything needs extra cleaning, or anything is damaged by you or your guests (other than normal wear and tear), we will charge the reasonable cost of cleaning, repair or replacement. We will show you how we worked it out.

7.8 Dancing. Due to our premises licence and insurance, dancing isn’t permitted.

7.9 Safety. Fire exits must be kept clear. We may refuse service or end an event early if there is a safety risk or serious misbehaviour. If we end an event early because of your guests’ behaviour, we won’t give a refund.

8. Photos and filming

8.1 We sometimes take photos and short videos at events to share on our website and social media. We will try not to make any one guest the focus without asking. If you don’t want to appear, tell a member of the team on the night, or email us later and we will remove the photo or video from our channels.

8.2 You are welcome to take photos and short clips for your own use. Please don’t use flash, record whole sets or stream the performance without the musicians’ permission, and please don’t film other guests without asking them first.

9. Our responsibility to you

9.1 If we don’t meet these terms, we are responsible for any loss or damage you suffer that was a foreseeable result of our failure or our negligence. Loss is foreseeable if it was obvious it would happen, or if we both knew it might happen when you booked.

9.2 We don’t exclude or limit our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud, or for anything else that the law doesn’t allow us to exclude. This includes your rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015.

9.3 Please look after your belongings. We aren’t responsible for loss or damage to your belongings, unless it was caused by our negligence or by our failure to meet these terms.

9.4 We only provide our services for private use. We aren’t responsible for business losses, such as lost profit or lost business opportunities.

10. Complaints

If something isn’t right, please tell a member of the team on the night so we can try to fix it. You can also email mail@lincolnjazzcafe.co.uk. We will reply within 5 working days.

11. Our website

We own the content on our website (including text, photos and logos), or we have permission to use it. You can share our pages, but please don’t copy our content for commercial use. Our site links to other websites, such as resOS, Gift Up and social media, which have their own terms and privacy policies.

12. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms from time to time. The version that applies to you is the one on our website when you booked or bought. Any changes won’t affect bookings you have already made, unless the law requires them to.

13. Law

These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales, and any dispute will be dealt with by the courts of England and Wales. If you live in Scotland or Northern Ireland, you can also bring a claim in your local courts.