Hope and Anchor, Islington

Hope and Anchor
The Hope and Anchor, Islington. (October 2005)
General information
Type	Pub
Location	Islington, London, England
Completed	1928 (current form)

The Hope and Anchor is a pub on Upper Street, in the London Borough of Islington, and first opened its doors in 1880. During the mid-1970s it was one of the first pubs to embrace the emergent, but brief, phenomenon of pub rock. With the decline of this movement, the pub went on to become a leading venue in the punk rock movement. The Hope and Anchor is still an operational pub and live music venue today, owned and operated by the Greene King brewing company. Venue facilities have been improved via refurbishments over the years.

The Hope and Anchor can trace its history back to when the building was built in 1880. When the Tally Ho in Kentish Town decided to switch from showcasing rock music to Irish music, the Hope and Anchor became the venue to go to in North London. The nights grew and developed under the stewardship of managers Fred Grainger and Dave Robinson, both of whom later moved on to other things (Fred to open a Club in Brighton; Dave to co-found independent record label Stiff Records with Jake Riviera).

In January 1976, the venue was acquired by Albion Management and Agency, who installed John Eichler as the landlord. In the light of numerous threats of closure, Eichler organised various benefits in order to keep the pub open, with named bands returning to the pub and performing for only expenses. Ian Grant of Albion narrowed down a long list to a final 22 bands – all of which had played at the pub at one time or another previously.

The Hope & Anchor Front Row Festival, which took place between Tuesday 22 November and Thursday 15 December 1977, featured numerous pub rock, punk, and new wave groups. The recordings were issued as a live double album of the same name, which reached No. 28 in the UK Albums Chart.

Unfortunately, few records exist of groups who performed at the Hope and Anchor. Below are a few (of the many) that are known to have played;

The actual performance space at the Hope and Anchor was, at the time, a spartan and rather grubby basement space, alternately dank or overheated, and always smoky, but this in many ways suited the anarchic ideals of late-1970s live music. It was here that The Stranglers recorded their album Live at the Hope and Anchor. The demo of the 'Between You and Me' track as used on the Howling Wind first Graham Parker album was recorded in the basement.