Hope & Anchor

The Hope and Anchor is a pub on Upper Street, in the London Borough of Islington. A traditional pub on street level with a small basement bar which became a mainstay on the pub rock scene from 1976. They soon latched onto early punk and new wave, featuring bands as diverse as Joy Division, The Stranglers and John Otway. Constantly threatened with closure, a benefit album Hope & Anchor Front Row Festival was released in 1978. After the brewery closed the pub as a venue it was squatted for a short while and presented anarchist punk bands, but the first phase was over in 1984. It has currently been re-opened as a venue with a small theatre on the first floor.