A couple of years ago whilst in London, I decided to check out Denmark Street, once known as Tin Pan Alley in the '50s and '60s, the Mecca for any aspiring pop singer who hoped to be signed up to record producers such as Larry Parnes and Norrie Paramor. Walking along the infamous street, scarcely one hundred yards long, it was hard to imagine it as being the birthplace of the British music business; it was looking very sad and unloved. Building works and shops shrouded in scaffolding and sheeting were commonplace. Additionally, the location was surrounded by swanky new high-rise developments which made the street seem even more down-at-heel.
In spite of its downtrodden appearance, the street is still a magnet for guitar lovers and those interested in musical instruments. Guitar shops which once lined both sides of the street have dwindled in numbers and the music publishers, managers and agents that once occupied virtually every office in every building on the street have long gone along with the studios where David Bowie, the Rolling Stones, Donovan and the Kinks made their first recordings. The basement club where artists such as Adele and scores of others got their early breaks is boarded up. Heavy building equipment was everywhere and brick dust filled the air. The famous Tin Pan Alley Club where The Rolling Stones played is no more and the Gioconda Café where musicians, publishers and writers gathered is now a steak restaurant. The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix and The Rolling Stones are just a few of thousands of rock stars, inventors, poets, explorers and more who have walked, worked or written on Denmark Street in Soho.
Mike Read’s book, Denmark Street has compiled a detailed history of a thousand years of the renowned London Street. The book is intended to be the first of a series documenting London Streets and a thousand years of their respective histories. Clearly some routes were only trackways, pathways or even fields but where Londoners have existed, worked, fought, traded, played, lived and died on the site it's fascinating to read about the journey, growth, sights and sounds of these iconic London thoroughfares.
Denmark Street wasn't built until the 1680s, but fascinating characters from all walks of life have been active on the site since the 1000s at least. Royalty, singers, musicians, highwaymen, murderers, thieves, arsonists, inventors, pioneers, regicides, politicians, revolutionaries, songwriters, poets and artists are all part of the colourful past of the street that became known as Tin Pan Alley. As well as rock stars, Denmark Street, and the site on which it was built, has also witnessed a millennium of mass murderers, pioneers, activists, rogues, arsonists, reformers, inventors, serial killers, poets, rebels, explorers, pirates, criminals, anarchists, queens, racing drivers, plague victims, lepers, schemers, dreamers, great lovers, swordsmen and songwriters. The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Elton John, The Kray Twins, Tom Jones, David Bowie, Karl Marx, Paul Simon, General Tom Thumb, Casanova, Denis Nilsen, The Sex Pistols, Charlie Chaplin, and hundreds of other familiar names, all worked, walked, or wrote in this site. Music magazines, New Musical Express and Melody Maker were born there, and it was, for a century, the home of talented UK songwriters and the British music publishing industry.
Denmark Street is located at the southern end of the London Borough of Camden. It is a street on the edge of London's West End running from Charing Cross Road to St Giles High Street. It is near St Giles in the Fields Church and Tottenham Court Road station. The street was developed in the late 17th century and named after Prince George of Denmark. Since the 1950s it has been associated with British popular music, first via publishers and later by recording studios and music shops. A blue plaque was unveiled in 2014 commemorating the street's importance to the music industry. The land on which Denmark Street stands was formerly part of the grounds of St Giles Hospital, founded as a house for lepers in the early 12th century by Henry I's wife, Matilda. The street started being used for commercial purposes at the beginning of the 19th century and houses were converted for this use. Ground floors became used as shops, while upper floors and back rooms were used as workshops, particularly for metalwork. Augustus Siebe, the pioneer of the diving helmet, lived and worked on the street, and there is an English Heritage blue plaque commemorating him on the house where he lived.
Read explains how the street was originally residential, but became used for commercial purposes in the 19th century. At first, metalwork was a popular trade but it became most famous as Britain's "Tin Pan Alley" housing numerous music publishers' offices. This market declined in the 1960s to be replaced by music shops and independent recording studios. The Rolling Stones recorded at Regent Sound Studio at No. 4 and popular musicians, including David Bowie and The Small Faces often socialised in the Gioconda Café at No. 9. Elton John and Bernie Taupin wrote songs at offices on the street in the 1960s, while the Sex Pistols lived above No. 6, and recorded their first demos there. The comic book store Forbidden Planet and the Helter Skelter music bookshop have also been based on the street.
In the 2010s, the surrounding area was redeveloped. Parts of Denmark Street are listed to protect them, but other parts, away from the street itself, are planned to be demolished. The book is a fascinating insight into the history of life on the street and the people who occupied it not only for history buffs but for anyone with an interest in London and rock history. Tin Pan Alley has been commemorated in the 1972 film “Whatever Happened to Tin Pan Alley” and the 2016 TV series “Tin Pan Alley” and Read’s book will be recognised as an in-depth aide memoir of the famous street and its visitors and occupants.
Reviewer - Anne Pritchard
on - 26/7/19
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