Phil, who books the music at the Half Moon, takes us on a tour of the newly refurbished venue — reopening today, Boat Race Day, after eight weeks of building work.
The tour starts in the pub and restaurant. The booths are new – before, Phil says, it was just table spaces. So is almost everything else. “They’ve basically ripped out everything that was here before, including stuff like the wiring that had been here from the 30s in many cases. They’ve just completely gutted the place and started again.”
Through to the music room, the bar on the side wall has been kept and updated – the one covered in the names of artists who’ve played here, running from the Who in the 1960s through to Cat Burns. “We thought it was very important that that stayed,” Phil says. Three guitars hang on the wall: one donated by Chris Martin of Coldplay, one belonging to Earl Slick – David Bowie’s guitarist, who also played with John Lennon – and one from James Welsh of Starsailor.
The room itself has been rebuilt around the same footprint. The bar, Phil says, is in the same place. What’s changed is everything else. “It had character before,” he says of the old bar. “It was a little one. That was a nice way of putting it. I’m bringing bands in, and it’s almost like I’m saying, oh, it’s got plenty of character — look at the beer on the ceiling and the wallpaper coming off. But now we’re a legitimately really top venue now. Absolutely love it.”
Up the staircase
This is where the renovation gets interesting. The staircase up to the new first floor space is entirely new, and lined with decades’ worth of signed photographs: Phil run through acts he’s booked, faces he knows, legends he’s watched from the side of the stage. “Every time I look at this wall, I see another one that wasn’t there before,” he says.
Halfway up, there’s an unplanned cameo. Torann – an R&B and pop artist from South West London who played the Half Moon’s New Moon emerging artist night. His signed picture is already on the wall. Phil spots it. “So we’ve got a little signed picture of him as well.”
It’s a small moment, but it captures something real about what the Half Moon does. The staircase connects the two things the venue has always done at once: honour the legends and back the next ones before anyone else has heard of them.
That instinct nearly died in 2010. Falling sales, rising rates, the tail end of the recession brought the venue close to closure. A petition of 6,500 signatures kept it alive. This staircase is what that fight was for.
The new bar
At the top, the payoff. The new bar occupies what was storage rooms and part of an old kitchen – none of it visible from downstairs, none of it existing a year ago. “This is such a good space,” Phil says. “This is our brand new bar. This is a whole new structure.” Above it, a retractable roof. On a clear day it opens completely. Today – Bank Holiday weekend, overcast – it stays closed, but the heaters are on and the space works regardless.
Capacity for private hire is around 100. Phil is already thinking about meet-and-greet events with artists, book launches, the pub quiz launching every Wednesday at 8pm.
“In the summer, this is the place to be,” he says. “You can get a tan while sitting inside. That’s the plan.”
Back to the garden
Back down through the pub, Phil keeps spotting things on the walls he hasn’t clocked before – and out to the garden. It’s bigger than it was: the old burger shack at the back has gone, replaced by extended outdoor space with two external bars. Gypsy Hill Brewery sponsors the new Monday music night. It’s filling up.
The Half Moon is at 93 Lower Richmond Road. It’s open now. Free entry today, live music from the afternoon, DJs until midnight. The Boat Race on the big screens inside tomorrow.
It has put live music on its stage every night since 1963. Tonight will be no different.
