Thanks for the input folks, but I'm still puzzled. Some pubs have separate rooms often upstairs, where the normal "lager-swillers showing their boobs, bellies and britches, throwing abuse and bottles at one another and spending like sailors," don't usually manage to reach and where the landlord/lady might be glad to tuck real-ale swilling Folkies away to quietly swell the coffers and twang their weird instruments. As to Festivals, they don't operate for most of the year, do they? The club I used to belong to in Sussex before moving to Lincolnshire was a Saturday club meeting in a venue like I've described and flourished even though people went to Festivals!

Thanks for letting me know about Brandy Wharf.
Cheers folks!
Katherine