The Harrison

The Harrison is a 60-capacity basement venue beneath a pub and small hotel in London’s King’s Cross. Its scale makes shows feel close-range: performers work in a downstairs room fitted with a sound system, microphones, ambient lighting, heating and air conditioning, while the ground-floor pub supplies the pre-show gathering space. Folk and roots form the programme’s centre of gravity, alongside jazz, experimental music, comedy and spoken word.

A pub built around the room

Owner Paul Michelmore set up The Harrison in 2005, according to his 2023 account of founding the pub 18 years earlier. The venue became a regular home for folk, roots and world-music concerts, workshops and quizzes, with local promoters using its basement for small-scale bills. Its strongest chapter came during the pandemic-rent dispute: in April 2023, the pub faced a £99,000 claim for lockdown-period rent and mounted a legal fundraising campaign. Camden recognised the building’s cultural role that June, approving its listing as an Asset of Community Value on 15 June 2023 after a nomination from Friends of The Harrison pub. The designation remains active through 15 June 2028, preserving a formal route for a community bid if the property enters a qualifying sale process.

The room today

Expect a deliberately mixed bill, led by folk, roots, singer-songwriters and world music, with psych-folk, experimental electronica, hard-bop jazz and garage rock also in the venue’s stated range. The Harrison says it gives emerging artists, established performers, independent labels and specialist promoters a platform; Folk on Monday, New Roots, Woodburner and Pear O’Legs appear among its regular collaborators. The basement’s 60-person standing limit creates an attentive, compact audience experience, while free Brazilian choro and Irish sessions also animate the upstairs pub on Sundays.