The Albany on Great Portland Street, one of London’s best known comedy venues, is to reopen in the new year.

The schedule will be managed and curated by Objectively Funny’s Martin Willis and will feature regular comedy nights.

The West End venue had been used for experimental live comedy since the 1980s, before the room was converted into a shortlived restaurant earlier this decade. It is the birthplace of the long-running nights Spank! and Robin Ince’s Book Club, and was picked by Bob Monkhouse for the Last Stand, his final gig, broadcast last year on BBC4.

The relaunch party on January 12 will include a short comedy show hosted by Edinburgh Comedy Award nominee Elf Lyons, and featuring fellow nominee Jordan Brookes and the host of BBC4’s Comedy of the Week podcast, Sindhu Vee. The headliner is double Edinburgh Comedy Award winner John Kearns (pictured). After that there will be a live band and DJ playing modern soul and funk.

Objectively Funny’s 9-day festival, held in the same venue this summer, was described by the Guardian as “the art form’s cutting edge”. The Albany’s programme will include monthly gigs booked and hosted by such acts as Jordan Brookes, TV’s Harriet Kemsley and Tez Ilyas, rising star Evelyn Mok, and Adam Larter, the force behind the Weirdos collective.

There will also be alternative comedy or cabaret every Friday, as well as the Objectively Funny-produced Presents, a monthly Saturday show with a live band, and 3 Line Wit, the new satirical debate show. Tickets for the relaunch party will be £5 from 7.30pm until the comedy finishes. Thereafter it’ll be free entry and run until 2am. Full January programme available here.