My Cultural Life - London

Taking a pint of beer or a glass of wine into a theatre at the back of a pub is something we take for granted nowadays, but before 1970 it wasn’t possible. That was when American Dan Crawford started work on London’s first pub theatre: The King’s Head.

The place already had quite a history. The original tavern on the site in Upper Street was rumoured to be Henry VIII’s regular stopping-off point on the way to see his mistress, who lived round the corner. In the seventeenth century the back room was used as a venue for cock-fighting and in the early twentieth century for (illegal) boxing.

In 1970 Dan Crawford converted it into a 115 seat theatre which evolved into London’s premier fringe venue for new plays, musicals, revivals, British contemporary classics and revues.

Dan Crawford was a young idealist and stage enthusiast whose dream was to open a dining-theatre like those he knew in New York. Tipped off that Islington was an  ‘up- and–coming area’  he  trawled every pub north of the Angel tube station until the desperate landlord of a rundown boozer opposite St Mary’s church said he’d be more than glad to hand it over. Business was so bad, he complained, that the job felt like solitary confinement. The brewery was persuaded to take a chance on Dan’s scheme and the new landlord took over.

Dan had done jobs of all kinds to raise money and realise his dream. These   included  working as a plasterer on building sites, and his practical skills were to come in very useful over the years  Initially, though, professionals were called in to help patch up the crumbling superstructure and refit the back room.

As one of Britain’s longest-serving off-West End director managers Dan lived and breathed the theatre, worked behind the bar, taking on the responsibility for lighting a number of productions, and  seeking out plays and actors, all with the same assiduous attention to detail. As actor Alan Rickman said of his personality, ‘Passion made him tick’. His dedication to the King’s Head Theatre and the people who performed there over the years earned him the fierce loyalty of actors and directors alike.

Dan Crawford died of cancer in 2005, aged 62. In July 2006 a tribute programme at the Novello Theatre in the Aldwych was performed by leading UK actors. The money raise was donated  the  King's Head Theatre's ‘Raise The Roof’ Campaign, a combination of homage and practical use that Dan would have approved of.

Always financially fragile, the theatre had somehow been cobbled together with furnishings from West End theatre cast-offs. The pub takings helped support the theatre and Dan’s Victorian bar till, with its pounds shilling and pence signs, was still in use years after decimalisation.

Together with a small government subsidy the bar profits allowed Dan to pay a minimum wage to performers and staff, but the ambience and facilities remained shabby. For a period the roof leaked, so that actress and Patron Joanna Lumley recalls a rainy night when the audience made paper hats of their programmes. It was a great blow when the subsidy was removed under the last Labour government.

More than 2,000 actors over the years trod the boards of the King’s Head. Some of the Britain’s best-known actors had their careers launched on the unusual 5 x 10 metre stage with its unnerving proximity to the audience. Stars including Steven Berkoff, Kenneth Branagh, Tom Conti, Hugh Grant, Joanna Lumley, Ben Kingsley, Maureen Lipman, Clive Owen, Alan Rickman, Imelda Staunton, and Victoria Wood owe much to the King’s Head.

Dan’s hard work and determination contributed to the success of the theatre over the years, but an essential factor was the support of the audience. Then, as now, it was important to present as wide a range of shows as possible, from experimental new plays to fresh interpretations of classics, from musicals to stand-up comedy .

Adding to the entertainment was a superb programme of live jazz playing six nights a week in a bar with coal fires, selling real ale. The dynamic relationship between the three spaces: theatre, pub and ‘buzzy’ Upper Street with its restaurants and cafes, gives a night out at the King’s Head a very special appeal.