Koko (music venue)
Music venue and former theatre in London, England, UK
Koko is a concert venue and former theatre in Camden Town, London. Opened in 1900 as a theatre, it was first named The Camden Theatre, before reopening as a variety theatre in 1909 under the name Camden Hippodrome Theatre and then converting to a cinema two years later as Camden Hippodrome Picture Theatre. It was closed during World War II and taken over by the BBC following the war's conclusion. The BBC left in 1972 and the building lay empty until being reopened in 1977 as a live music venue named The Music Machine. The Music Machine was renamed the Camden Palace in 1982. The venue was purchased in 2004 and was the subject of extensive restoration, led by Oliver Bengough and Mint Entertainment. Following the restoration, the venue was renamed as Koko. In this guise it has been described as one of the premier live music venues in London.
History
1900–1945: Theatre and cinema
The Camden Theatre opened on Boxing Day 1900. With a capacity of 2,434 it was one of the largest theatres in London outside the West End.
The public source identifies “Koko (music venue)” as music venue and former theatre in London, England, UK. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Koko, music and venue.
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Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 30, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1028419. Authority coordinates are 51.535, -0.138. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1900, 1909, 1972 and 1977.
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This entry incorporates text from “Koko (music venue)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.