An award-winning folk venue in King’s Cross has survived “by the skin of its teeth” after having to find £99,000 in backdated rent from the pandemic.
The Harrison Pub was locked in a four-year battle with its landlords, the Wellington Pub Company, over rent payments and was asked to pay just shy of six figures following a High Court battle.
The pub was days away from closing but was saved by £20,000 worth of donations from nearly 600 pub goers, with one musician who performs at the venue donating £1,800.
The pub’s landlord Paul Michelmore told the Standard he was overwhelmed by the outpour of support for the venue, explaining “it’s the music that saved us”.
“It was pretty close to the skin of its teeth,” he explained. “It’s been a weird feeling… I just keep getting this panic that we have forgotten something.
“We are talking about the future for the first time in four and a half years.”
The pub, which is a short walk from King’s Cross and St Pancras stations, is currently negotiating a 15 year lease, securing its long term future.
The venue regularly hosts folk nights and musicians who have performed at the pub include Peggy Seeger and Bonobo.
The pub was instructed to pay its landlords the full rent for the property during the
Mr Michelmore previously told the Standard: “When I took the pub over Harrison Street was full of prostitutes and junkies.
“The only reason cars aren’t robbed every single day on Harrison Street is because we are there making it a nice place to be.
“If we shut, it would be drug dealing central. That would be full of junkies all day, all night.
“We are the only place where everybody mixes from the Bengali boys to the old white geezers from the estate who have lived there from the 1920s.
“Or the solicitors and lawyers who come and work in London, the students at SOAS, all these people mix together next to each other - 18-year-old to 80-year-old. White, black, gay, straight.
“That’s the beautiful thing, that’s why pubs are important. They are the only point where all these polarised communities meet and cross. If it wasn’t for places like pubs you would stay in your tribe.”
The 60-person capacity venue had been forced to fundraise to stay open after “exhausting all other options”.
Last summer the pub was made an asset for community value by Camden Council, meaning the community will have six months to try and bid for the pub if it is put up for sale.
