The Red Hedgehog, close by Highgate Tube, opened its doors on Wednesday 7 OCTOBER, 2006.

The name was inspired by the 19th century Viennese coffee house, Zum Roten Igel (which translates to The Red Hedgehog).  Composer Johannes Brahms frequented the place so obsessively he refused to eat or drink anywhere else;  a famous lithograph shows him striding out in his top hat with a tiny red hedgehog at his heels (it might also have been a subtle evocation of Brahms’ increasingly prickly personality in later years).  

Zum Roten Igel  was also a regular watering hole for other notable composers including Schubert, Schumann and Mendelssohn, and the place is referred to in musical correspondence through the years in relation to many a musical figure of the period. There is a reference to Beethoven having rehearsed in the upstairs quarters of the coffee house.  

The Red Hedgehog is grateful to the exceptional concert pianist James Lisney for suggesting the name, which has inevitably already featured in pub quizzes.