The Horse Hospital

The Horse Hospital

The Horse Hospital is an arts venue in central London, England, which caters for literary and spoken word events, underground film and avantgarde media screenings, and visual art exhibitions. Founded in 1992 by Roger Burton the venue opened with Vive Le Punk! a retrospective of Vivienne Westwoods punk designs in 1993.

Programmed by Roger Burton and Ian White the venue became increasingly important to London and beyond. James Hollands later replaced White as curator. Throughout its existence a variety of guest curates have worked with the venue.

In 1998 the Horse Hospital hosted the debut British exhibition by outsider artist / painter Joe Coleman which attracted a new audience. Subsequently the venue played host to a variety of performers, musicians, artists and writers, including Dame Darcy, Anita Pallenberg, Iain Aitch, Jack Sargeant, Chris Carter, David Tibet, Stewart Home, and others.

It has also been used by various record labels, publishing houses including Soft Skull Press and Clear Cut Press. and journals such as Strange Attractor for special events, as well as a screening space for numerous film festivals including the Declaration of Independence Film Festival, and Rural root Film Festival amongst others .

The building itself was originally used as a horse hospital, and is notable for its unique stone tiled floor. It can be found at Colonnade, Bloomsbury, London.