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Denmark Street
Denmark Street 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 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 "the British 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, were demolished and redeveloped.
Denmark Street is located at the southern end of the London Borough of Camden, close to its boundary with the London Borough of Westminster. It is east of Soho Square, south of St Giles Circus and close to the St Giles in the Fields Church.
The street is 108 metres (354 ft) long and connects Charing Cross Road with St Giles High Street. Vehicular traffic is now only allowed to travel westbound. The nearest London Underground station is Tottenham Court Road, between two and three minutes' walk away.
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). In 1612, it was recorded as being owned by Tristram Gibbs. The grounds were laid out for development during the reign of James II and developed by Samuel Fortrey and Jacques Wiseman in the late 1680s. Historical evidence suggests the street was formed between 1682 and 1687, as it was not shown on Morden and Lea's Map of 1682. It was named after Prince George of Denmark, who had married Princess Anne in 1683. By 1691, 20 houses had been completed, of which eight remain standing.
Dr John Purcell, a London physician who published A Treatise on Vapours or Hysteric Fits, lived at No. 10 in the year he died (1730), while the Reverend Doctor John James Majendie – who became Canon of Windsor – lived there from 1758 to 1771. The painter Johann Zoffany lived at No. 9. 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".
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". Though much of the area was cleared by the end of the 19th century, Denmark Street is the only street in London to retain 17th-century terraced facades on both sides. In 2010, a study by Camden London Borough Council suggested that only six other streets in London have a comparable heritage to Denmark Street. A small court connected by passages (originally known as Dudley Court, then Denmark Court and now known as Denmark Place) runs along the back of the north side of the street, connecting to it via an opening at No. 27.
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, with a rare pre-Victorian smithy, later a blacksmith's forge, surviving (in a building originally constructed as a stable) in Denmark Place, behind no. 26 Denmark Street. Augustus Siebe, the pioneer of the diving helmet, lived and worked on the street, and today there is an English Heritage blue plaque commemorating him on the house where he lived. Preempting its later fame, an early musical instrument maker, William John Hanbury, is listed at No. 20 in 1836.
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Denmark Street
Denmark Street 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 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 "the British 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, were demolished and redeveloped.
Denmark Street is located at the southern end of the London Borough of Camden, close to its boundary with the London Borough of Westminster. It is east of Soho Square, south of St Giles Circus and close to the St Giles in the Fields Church.
The street is 108 metres (354 ft) long and connects Charing Cross Road with St Giles High Street. Vehicular traffic is now only allowed to travel westbound. The nearest London Underground station is Tottenham Court Road, between two and three minutes' walk away.
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). In 1612, it was recorded as being owned by Tristram Gibbs. The grounds were laid out for development during the reign of James II and developed by Samuel Fortrey and Jacques Wiseman in the late 1680s. Historical evidence suggests the street was formed between 1682 and 1687, as it was not shown on Morden and Lea's Map of 1682. It was named after Prince George of Denmark, who had married Princess Anne in 1683. By 1691, 20 houses had been completed, of which eight remain standing.
Dr John Purcell, a London physician who published A Treatise on Vapours or Hysteric Fits, lived at No. 10 in the year he died (1730), while the Reverend Doctor John James Majendie – who became Canon of Windsor – lived there from 1758 to 1771. The painter Johann Zoffany lived at No. 9. 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".
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". Though much of the area was cleared by the end of the 19th century, Denmark Street is the only street in London to retain 17th-century terraced facades on both sides. In 2010, a study by Camden London Borough Council suggested that only six other streets in London have a comparable heritage to Denmark Street. A small court connected by passages (originally known as Dudley Court, then Denmark Court and now known as Denmark Place) runs along the back of the north side of the street, connecting to it via an opening at No. 27.
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, with a rare pre-Victorian smithy, later a blacksmith's forge, surviving (in a building originally constructed as a stable) in Denmark Place, behind no. 26 Denmark Street. Augustus Siebe, the pioneer of the diving helmet, lived and worked on the street, and today there is an English Heritage blue plaque commemorating him on the house where he lived. Preempting its later fame, an early musical instrument maker, William John Hanbury, is listed at No. 20 in 1836.