KOKO
Introducing The House of KOKO - the coolest (private) space in the capital
In April 2022, London’s iconic KOKO reopened its doors once again, 122 years after it originally opened, and following a three-year restoration and redevelopment, which saw the space remarkably transformed from the historic 19th century theatre into a 50,000 square foot state-of-the-art live music venue. The three-year restoration period presented a plethora of challenges for KOKO Founder and CEO Olly Bengough who persevered through a global pandemic, a blazing fire and the colossal water damage that followed.
It was Olly’s ground-breaking vision to redefine live music and entertainment as well as a goal to empower the next generation of musicians that helped during that time. What has now come to fruition is support across multiple platforms of musicians with over four different performance venues for artists and DJs as well as high-specification broadcasting, recoding studio facilities and live-streaming capabilities. All of this means that KOKO offers concert performances and the option to record, stream and distribute content. Speaking about the space’s impressive offering Olly says “Artists can create behind-the-scenes content and offer limited edition livestreams or merchandise. We want to help emerging artists or really big headline acts create incredible artistic moments.” The new KOKO features the beautifully restored Victorian theatre, immersive new ‘Fly Tower’ experience, and the new day-to-night Cafe KOKO, all open to the public. Describing the Herculean effort to bring KOKO back to life, Olly says “Luckily, I worked with very skilful people over those years—hundreds of talented craftspeople on the restoration of the theatre, plus The Victorian Society, English Heritage and the Archer Humphryes Architects.” The decision to combine the space into several, unique but connected spaces was born after “the opportunity to acquire the two buildings behind KOKO came up and, from there, it was many years of planning and mapping out what could be created backstage at KOKO, we would be giving people more experiences whilst also bringing the building back to its broadcasting roots”.
In addition, The House of KOKO is a new private members club situated backstage at London’s iconic KOKO. Sprawling over four floors and sixteen beautifully designed spaces (from the design team behind Chiltern Firehouse), The House of KOKO’s artistic new membership community enjoy access to (deep breath before you read all of the following) a beautiful new roof terrace and restaurant, dome cocktail bar, penthouse and recording studio, piano room, library, a hidden speakeasy, stage kitchen, cocktail bar and secret vinyl rooms. Architecturally unique, and with a sense of adventure at its heart, members can explore secret routes into the theatre, and delight in its many hidden rooms. With Executive Chef Andreas Engberg (La Petite Maison) at the helm, and housing one of the finest contemporary art collections in London, The House of KOKO with its artistic and musical community, is at the forefront of London culture.
Designed with Pirajean Lees, in collaboration with Olly Bengough each of the new spaces is carefully connected, allowing KOKO members to have a sense of adventure as they make their way through the building. The design concept "began by delving into the theatre’s colourful Victorian history and the bohemian lifestyle of its past performers”. In order to give each of the new spaces its own identity, Pirajean Lees took inspiration from the back of house elements that were needed to operate the theatre in its past life, carefully adapting these ideas into modern rooms for the venue. This introduced features, bespoke design elements and furniture that acknowledge the history of the music industry and KOKO’s colourful past. For example, in Battens Bar, a bespoke ceiling references the structure of the original Fly Tower and features vintage speaker fabric. Whilst elsewhere a bespoke leather sofa in the piano room harks back to the punk era, whilst the one-of-a-kind cigarette carpet in Ellen’s creates the smokey ambience of a traditional Jazz Bar. Inspired by the original backstage doors at KOKO in the 1920s, bespoke deep olive doors with black frames are replicated throughout the building. In the penthouse, sliding panel doors are inspired by vintage Sony speakers. Whilst the members' club is directly connected to the refurbished 122-year-old, Grade II-listed theatre, “The heart of the whole project is the theatre” says Olly.
Members of The House of KOKO enjoy priority booking to live and electronic events in the calendar in the theatre, exciting events in The Fly Tower, plus access to an exclusive cultural calendar programmed within The House, including seasonal parties, culinary pop ups, inspiring talks, workshops, innovative performances, exhibitions and access to an extensive live show calendar in Ellen’s jazz and blues club. Some of the regular experiences within The House of KOKO include weekend brunch day parties on the rooftop, cocktails and DJs, carrying on until late night, Sunday family brunch in the Stage Kitchen with kids activities including film screenings so parents can relax, curated monthly Supper clubs for networking with live music, wine pairing and seasonal themed menus, wellness in the dome (eg sound healing workshops), jam nights in Ellen’s where aspiring singers and musicians can get up and play together as well as events around cultural moments including The BAFTAs, Frieze, LFW, London Design Week and more.
It seems that music is in Olly’s heart and soul, and KOKO is without doubt an incredibly reputable space for musicians. Art is also something that Olly is passionate about, and The House of KOKO has an impressive array of artwork throughout the four-storey space. Last year Frieze partnered with KOKO, and the Gagosian Gallery took over the building, and photographer Yushi Li created an innovative art experiment on the theatre stage. KOKO’s art collection boasts works by Conrad Shawcross, Frank Auerbach, Mat Collishaw, Rachel Whiteread, France Lise McGurn, Luke Edward Hall among many others. Emerging star of the art world, Sahara Longe has a piece titled Mimiwata in The House there and has hosted an event over Frieze for Timothy Taylor Gallery. The cultural diversity continued with a leading talk from London Design Festival on the intersection of design and music, and at the other end of the spectrum, a stunning classical piano recital was witnessed in the theatre from Chinese prodigy Paul Ji.
In the small time since the re-opening to the public, both KOKO and The House of KOKO have made a significant contribution to London’s status as a world-class venue and space for musicians and artists. The first year of opening saw over 1000 music performances at a time when live music was under pressure (“Hosting over 1,000 performances in one year across the new building was pretty wild, especially in this climate”.) Just a few of these shows include Nas and the Wu-Tang Clan, Jorja Smith, Cleo Sol (with Alicia Keys watching at the wings), Arcade Fire, Slowthai, Kenny Beats, Confidence Man, Cat Burns, Little Simz in the Theatre, whilst backstage in The House of KOKO Stormzy had his birthday party, Burna Boy’s launched his album launch with P Diddy, Joey Bada$$ after-partied in the Piano Room and Jamie Foxx jumped on the piano one evening.
A full version of this feature can be found in The Rakish Gent Issue 4.