Denmark Street

At first, metalwork was a popular trade but it became most famous as "the British Tin Pan Alley" housing numerous music publishers' offices.

[4][5] 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 (Maud).

[13] In the late 18th century, the Jacobite Sir John Murray lived there until the day he was "carried off by a party of strange men".

[14] The area around the street was known as the rookery of St Giles, which developed in the 18th century as an unplanned slum to the west of the City, and was described as a "Pandora's box of pollution, plague and pestilence".

[23] The same year, another music publisher, Campbell Connelly, moved from their original offices in Tottenham Court Road to Denmark Street.

[24] By the end of the 1950s, the street had established itself as Britain's "Tin Pan Alley" and housed numerous music publishers and other venues connected with the business.

[25] Larry Parnes became a successful manager and entrepreneur of pop singers during the mid-1950s, and regularly took material from songwriters and publishers based in Denmark Street.

[26] Lionel Bart, writer of the musical Oliver!, started his writing career for publishers and was subsequently known as "the king of Denmark Street".

[27] The music publishing trade on Denmark Street began to decline during the 1960s, as the traditional producers lost touch with changing tastes and groups like the Rolling Stones showed it was possible to write their own material.

[36] Session musicians such as Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones regularly played in Denmark Street studios.

[39] David Bowie recruited his first backing band, The Lower Third, in the bar,[34] while the Small Faces formed after the original members socialised at the Gioconda.

[45] They mentioned the street in their 1974 song "Bitter Fingers", on the semi-autobiographical concept album Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy.

Also in 1970, a song named "Denmark Street" appeared on the Kinks' album Lola versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One.

[46] Manager Malcolm McLaren asked architect Ben Kelly to refurbish a basement rehearsal room he had bought from Badfinger.

He had turned up at the audition with a Japanese Les Paul Copy—when he got the job, Phil Lynott took him shopping on Denmark Street.

[55] On 16 August 1980 John Thompson, a local petty criminal, was ejected from The Spanish Rooms following a fight which may have been caused by a dispute about being overcharged.

[57] The serial killer Dennis Nilsen worked there and brought in a large cooking pot, in which he had boiled his victims heads, as a utensil for preparing a Christmas 1980 party.

[64] In 2013, the council announced that Denmark Street would be redeveloped by the architectural firm ORMS as part of a major development in conjunction with the Crossrail construction work around Tottenham Court Road tube station and Centre Point.

[65] Numbers 1–6 and 17–21 Denmark Place, which run parallel along the back of the street, and the York and Clifton Mansions will be demolished, along with partial demolition of No.

[66] He discovered that, although demolition was scheduled to start in late 2014, the plans were approved by the newly elected borough council.

[69] It closed in January 2015 as part of the redevelopment work,[70][71] while the actual smithy (forge) in which it had operated was retained intact as a historic building, being moved temporarily by crane after stabilization so that construction could be carried out beneath it, then replaced in its original position.

[75] Opened in 2022, a new and enlarged venue "The Lower Third" has been constructed on the site, incorporating the previous 12 Bar Club/"forge" building as one of its function rooms.

[82] Since then it has undergone two changes of owners and now specialises in sheet music and DVD sales, covering a wide variety of styles including jazz and classical.

[84] The company became the first British distributor of Rickenbacker guitars in 1962, which had a surge in popularity after musicians noticed the Beatles' John Lennon playing one.

Rose Morris purchased instruments directly from Rickenbacker's factory instead of their sales office, in order to keep up with demand.

[87] It was founded by session violinist Ralph Elman, and was previously the premises of the Acid Jazz Records label.

At the moment there is a massive redevelopment going on which will eventually force a lot of independent businesses out of the area – I have a real connection to all the music and art stores and to see people trying to tear out its soul makes me super upset and really pissed off...Everyone from Jagger to Lennon to the Sex Pistols used to hang out there.

To sit back and watch the transformation happen without saying something is not an idea that I’m into.”[91] Denmark Street has eight Grade II listed buildings.

[92] Though the refurbishment plans allow modernisation of these buildings, the council are keen to ensure that the affected properties remain solely in use for the music industry.

A report added, "Music industry activities make a fundamental contribution to the special character of Denmark Street and support associated retail provision.