Previous page The bar area in Ellen’s Jazz and Blues Club, part of the House of KOKO


Above The view from the dome to the House of KOKO’s roof terrace


Top right One of the


corridors of the Vinyl Rooms, adorned with artwork and flanked by wooden panels on one side and brickwork on the other


Right True to its name, the Vinyl Rooms feature tasteful vinyls and classic record players, adding to the ambience of the rooms


environment that seizes KOKO’s vigour. With the threat of extinction as a music venue, Archer Humphryes set about af irming KOKO’s value within the urban fabric throughout the planning processes. The resulting design scheme sees the historic theatre with ‘decks’ of hospitality.


Internally, the magnificent Victorian theatre is beautifully restored in KOKO’s signature red and gold with Archer Humphryes Architects working closely with English Heritage, The Victorian Society and the Camden Borough Council’s conservation department. ‘When Olly bought The Camden Palace in 2004, it was a dance music place painted black. He painted it red and gold and put live music back into it’, says David Archer of Archer Humpryes Architects. ‘That field of red and gold is incredibly theatrical in terms of enjoying live music and performance [at KOKO]. Certain historic bodies were keen that we should go back to the original cream and gold of 1900, but this was about recreating KOKO [... and] what Olly’s created and managed for 15 years […] is just as important as what was put there originally.’ Archer Humphryes Architects also discovered the theatre’s original fly tower, which has been restored and transformed into


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