It’s just £25 to put on your own gig at The Harrison, enough to cover “the PRS licence and the cleaner for afterwards”. For new bands trying to build a following in London, “it is a key part of the recipe to have a friendly venue” that’s central enough to draw people in from across the city.
But this egalitarian space has been fighting for its life since Covid hit. Unlike many other landlords, the Wellington Pub Company – owned by billionaires David and Simon Reuben, Tory donors and Britain’s fourth richest family – didn’t waive rents during the pandemic for their hundreds of tenants. Some of the bars affected have already closed. The company did offer its estimated 850 tenants a Covid discount, but only on condition that they extended their leases for five years.
“That didn’t work for me,” explains Michelmore. “I’d have liked another 15 years on the lease – I would have taken that deal. But five years isn’t long enough for me to pay off the money and make the investments I need to do on the building.”
He decided to go to arbitration, “which is meant to split the debt fairly between the two parties, according to their means. Obviously, it didn’t go that way.” Following a decision he calls “utter nonsense”, Michelmore was left with a £99,000 bill – the full rent for the entire Covid period.
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