The Garage — Highbury Corner, London

The Garage at 20-22 Highbury Corner in north London has been one of the most active and respected mid-size live music venues in the capital since the early 1990s, with a capacity of approximately 600 in the main room and a smaller downstairs space. The venue has hosted early and career-defining shows by Blur, Radiohead, Portishead, Placebo, Franz Ferdinand, the Killers, and hundreds of other British and international acts, occupying the critical size between the small club and the large theatre that is so essential to the ecology of a working music city. Its location in Highbury, a largely residential north London neighbourhood, gives it a local character that distinguishes it from the more tourist-oriented venues of Camden and the West End.

The Garage was particularly important during the Britpop era of the mid-1990s, when its size and booking policy made it the natural home for the second and third tier of the scene — bands that had outgrown the smaller clubs but had not yet graduated to the Astoria or Brixton Academy. Many of the most significant British bands of that period played the Garage as a stepping stone in their development, and the venue's intimacy meant that early performances by bands who would later fill arenas were witnessed by audiences of a few hundred people. The upstairs room has been similarly important for emerging acts across multiple generations of British music.

The Garage continues to operate as of 2025 and remains one of London's most consistently programmed independent venues. Highbury Corner has been significantly altered by the construction of Highbury and Islington station's Overground entrance, but the venue itself has maintained its character. It is a short walk from Highbury and Islington station on the Victoria line and the London Overground.