King's Head Theatre

England's first pub theatre since the days of Shakespeare, the King's Head was started in 1970 by New Jersey-born maverick Dan Crawford (1942–2005), who resurrected a rather worn Victorian public house in stylish-liberal Islington, and transformed the backroom into an intimate and exciting venue staging new drama, revivals, musicals and cabaret-style revues, from Noël Coward to Harold Pinter and Tom Stoppard, showcasing obscure, fringe and/or gay works. Previous productions have featured patron Joanna Lumley, Kathy Burke, Alan Rickman, Dawn French, John Hurt, Prunella Scales, Gary Oldman, Hugh Grant, Dan Castellaneta, Anthony Sher, Celia Imrie and Victoria Wood. On 13 August 2023 the King’s Head Theatre vacated the eponymous pub, then in January 2024 reopened immediately behind the existing venue, in a custom-built new 200-seat theatre in Islington Square, accessible via arches to the right of the pub. The new theatre and the old pub share a wall.