The Kenton Pub, London: Converting a Kitchen into a Karaoke Room

The Kenton Pub is a traditional English pub with a Scandinavian twist. This 100 square meter pub is located in the Hackney borough of London in a charming old Victorian building constructed in 1865. While retaining its traditional English pub exterior, the owner has added a personal touch with Scandinavian decor, featuring Norwegian flags, Norse and Viking memorabilia, and a moose head on the wall. The pub has also won a lot of awards. In 2018 it was awarded the best pub in London by Time Out Magazine.

They mainly attract people from the local area, but also a few people travel from other parts of London to see the pub. The pub has a focus on various activities like pub quizzes, DJ nights, football games, and a karaoke room, introduced in 2023 after converting their old kitchen space.

The Kenton Pubs karaoke room consists of one-hour slots per booking between £59-79 depending on the day, but groups booking an extra hour after their initial booking have been quite common. 80% of the bookings for the karaoke room have come from people already in the pub, with drop-ins being the primary source of bookings.

Guests are advertised the karaoke room with fleets/flyers on the table or are lured in by the entrance to the karaoke room which has a big neon light. The average number of customers/groups coming in for bookings is typically around 6 to 8 people, with a maximum of 10 people allowed in the karaoke room. Most bookings have been on Fridays and Saturdays, but they have seen repeat bookings from customers who had a good experience.

The owner, Egil Johansen, shared that his interest in karaoke was sparked during his time living in Tokyo 24 years ago. He was fascinated by the private karaoke booths in Japan and enjoyed the experience of singing karaoke with colleagues. This experience led him to appreciate karaoke and incorporate it into the offerings at The Kenton Pub. When he moved to London he saw more and more karaoke rooms popping up in London and always had a dream to start his karaoke room at The Kenton Pub. When he decided to close down the kitchen he came up with the idea of turning the kitchen into a karaoke room.

The Goal for the karaoke room is to generate more revenue for The Kenton Pub and have at least 10 bookings a week. As Hackney is becoming a more vibrant and popular area in London the cost of having a pub also rises and making the karaoke room was an alternative to generate more revenue for the venue.

As the increase of gas and electricity costs tripled, The Kenton Pub decided to get rid of the kitchen. The commercial kitchen equipment was consuming a lot of energy. Additionally, the costs of running a kitchen, including hiring chefs and extra staff, outweighed the revenue generated from food sales. Nowadays they have partnered up with a local pizza company that delivers the food to their venue.

The customers scan a QR code at their venue, order pizza and then the pizza comes straight to the pub. Initially, Egil considered renting out the kitchen to a ghost kitchen company to use for cooking and delivery. However, he ultimately decided against this option due to concerns about potential disturbances to neighbors. As a result, he chose to repurpose the kitchen space for a karaoke room instead.

The Kenton Pub invested a total of £15,000 in the karaoke room, including equipment, furniture, soundproofing, and air conditioning. One of the most important things was to make the karaoke room as soundproof as possible, so they soundproofed the whole sealing, walls, doors, and even the pubs' corridors. Some other important factors were making the quality of the sound and equipment of the karaoke room very professional and making it loud as well as investing in great air conditioning, to give the guests a great experience. With the karaoke rooms, they have gotten an extra income per hour. The main impact has been the additional revenue generated from bookings for the karaoke room.

Egil came up with the design and style for the karaoke room himself, as he enjoys interior design and building stuff. The theme of the room is 1970s retro style with yellow, dark brown, and red colors. Most of the furniture is second-hand and customized to fit the room.

Egil chose Singa for the karaoke system after considering other options as Singa stood out from the crowd and provided him with great consultation and help when he first contacted Singa. He found Singa to be a more cost-effective solution with separate components that are easier to replace if needed.

The interface is user-friendly, and there has been no negative feedback from customers regarding song selection. The box mode and session management feature in Singa have also made it really easy for the staff to handle the karaoke room.

The future plans for The Kenton Pub include improving the beer garden they have outside, getting great revenue from the karaoke room, and maintaining the old building including a massive renovation of the exterior. They also want to keep customers and staff happy and maintain popularity, the focus is on providing good service, and ensuring the building is well-maintained to create a positive atmosphere for everyone.