The Kings Head

It used to be a very pleasant pub with a great theatre at the back. Not anymore. I was enjoying a drink with a friend when a member of the staff came to tell us that he was going to remove our table. In very bad manners with no explanation. He was so rude that I didn't think he could be a member of the staff. He was. We said: no. Then, another rude member of the staff came and took the table away threatening to kick us out from the pub. Why they didn't remove the next table and provided a table to a group opposite goes without understanding. If they've decided to treat people with such bad manners and with such "randomness"; don't go. We went to another pub up Upper street and the staff were lovely.

Simply hands down my favourite pub in London! Love this place, love the live music of Sunday’s and it always has an ecclectic crowd. Never been to a show at the Theatre but it’s on the bucket list…

Beatiful old pub and good theatre venue. They are surprisingly good at keeping the noise of the pub from conflicting with the show.
Many of the plays that do well here, end up in central London.

18/83/11 le boheme….. Oh MG. don’t think about it just book it. You will love it. I cried like a baby!
2/8/11 Lovely pub but, more, impotantly THE, BEST PRODUCTION OF THE TURN OF THE SCREW. totally blown away! 1000% better than Glyndebourne!

Not sure why we like this place. But we do. Great meeting place. Finding my feet in Islington and this place has helped. Could be cleaner.

Really good fun pub across the road from the church on Upper Street. Open late at the weekend as is really good fun. Great place to start your night!

Always worth a stop along Upper St, this place is a real pub. Smells a bit funky, has plenty of real ales and has a great olf school vibe. They have an old till dominating the bar, which was used until only very recently.

Attached to the theatre, it can get pretty crowded at intermission. They also host music, although im not such a big fan tbh.

I went here last night for a Cinnamon Review or something live evening. The advertised start time was 8:30 but nothing happened until about 9:45. I thought we were waiting for musicians, but the first female performer just sang to a backing track!
The pub is a theatre pub, the theatre out back I think, and when everyone was trying to get into the theatre or get out, it was so crowded you wanted to scream. They’d moved a chesterfield into the rear corner to make way for the dj desk for cinnamon’s evening, and because that was the only corridor leading out back it was just a jam. No health and safety.
There was one burlesque act, she was quite good, and then ruined it by standing playing a classical piece on the keyboard for about five minutes, wearing only a thong and some nipple stickie things.
I left before the band, cos i was getting depressed.

Pluses: real coal fire, three or four ales. I had the Young’s, which tasted a bit off to be honest. (£3) Probably best to go here if you’re seeing a play.

This is a good old traditional theatre pub, with all the regular theatrical types you would expect. An eclectic crowd frequent the pub of an evening, with live music also pulling in various punters. Its hard not to get tangled in a conversation with strangers, and hard not to get your drink knocked over too. But that is all of the fun.

It is easy to find, on Upper Street just across from the Church and with hundreds of smokers all wandering around outside and into the road.

The theatre itself is small but in a fun intimate way, not a weird, creepy, I am sitting to close to the actors way.

Prices are good, and its better than hanging about in some rubbish chain bar with shiny surfaces, bad music, and idiot leerers.

Top pub in Islington, it’s one of the first I set foot in on my first visit to London.

It’s retained its old feel, with very little new renovation to spoil old the tables and bar. There are several real ales on tap, plus the regular lagers and other drinks. Prices are surprisingly reasonable for this part of town, which has a lot of upscale bars and restaurants. You can stand out on the pavement and lots of people do when it gets busy. That happens most nights, partly because there’s live music in the tiny corner stage most nights, but also because the pub’s a bit of a London institution. Check out the old-style push button cash register.

I think the best feature of the place is the fact that there’s a small theatre in the back that puts on plays. I’ve seen a couple of productions here. The stage is small, and very close to the 50 or so people that can fit in the tiered benches to watch. It’s very off-West End, obviously, fringe plays that don’t cost much at all.

It’s a fun place to go for a couple of pints and catch an oddball play. Afterwards, you can stay and drink and listen to whatever two-man acoustic band is playing, or hit one of the many restaurant choices along Upper Street.

As a theatre, I’ve found the King’s Head rather disappointing.

Sure, it’s small and quirky, and at the back of a good-old-fashioned-pub, but there seems to be no one who cares about what shows actually get put on there.

As a theatre I think it’s living off its reputation. It used to be quite a good spot to see comedy, but from what I hear, the acts and theatre companies are not treated too well by the theatre and many have taken their performances to one of the many other pub theatres in London.

I might be a little biased here, as a good friend of mine has family links to the owners and currently lives upstairs but that aside, The Kings Head is a fantastic pub. It is a traditional theatre pub in the way hardly any pubs truly are, no matter hard they keep trying. Small but atmospheric to the extremity of the scale, the theatre also offers good value. The best pub on Old Street methinks.

The king's head is an extroadinary place, given it's positioning in the restaurant mecca it exists in and it only takes a glance to realise the place has been there longer than pretty much every other buiness on this road.

A traditional pub, that doubles up as a theatre, is about as rare here as a forest fire in Antartica. The pub itself is brilliant, a bar in the middle with a till that is best described as a one armed bandit without the flashing lights.

The atmosphere is raucous, fun, uplifting and the price reasonable, fair I like to call it. Behind the bar and through the doors lies the theatre, a small stage with rows of seats climbing up towards the back.

Initiated by a man named Dan Crawford, who sadly passed away, the theatre began in 1970 and has been continued by those he mentored.

So I say take a look and enjoy a night out here, even if it is just for the till.