*”Denmark Street” – London’s “Tin Pan Alley”

So – following an absence of some 7 weeks due to a health issue & its treatment, London Shoes felt sufficiently recovered last week, to adopt a slow and measured approach to hopefully getting back on-the-road again, to do what ‘Shoes’ does best – eg the blogging of some of the more unusual and lesser known aspects of this City’s wonderful and amazing history.

Just to be on the safe side, the topic selected for this return jaunt out, wasn’t too far a trek from home – and it relates to a particular street on the outskirts of London’s Soho district – a street that is absolutely pivotal to London’s (and Britain’s) music industry.

This blogs subject matter is:- “Denmark Street”- London’s “Tin Pan Alley”

Denmark Street, lies just behind Tottenham Court Road tube station in London’s west-end, just off the Charing Cross Road.

In its present state – Denmark Street was set out in the late 17th Century – and was named after ‘Prince George of Denmark – and its is one of the only streets in London to retain its 17th Century terraces on both sides of the street.

Following their construction Denmark Street’s terraced houses, were mainly residential – but as time moved on to the 18th & 19th Century’s – the ground floor of the properties became retail shops, whilst the upper floors of the houses, became workshops – with the metal working industry being particularly prevalent there. In fact ‘Augustus Siebe’ the inventor of the very first ‘diving helmet’, lived and worked in Denmark Street from 1788 to 1872 – and today, an English Heritage ‘blue plaque’ is displayed on the exterior walls of the house where he lived.

By the early 1900’s music publishers began to set up businesses in Denmark Street – and as the years moved on, so did songwriters, recording studios and eventually musical instrument retailers.

By the 1920’s Denmark Street became known as Britain’s “Tin Pan Alley” – because of all the music publishers and songwriters located there.

The term ‘Tin Pan Alley’ originates from a particular district of 5th & 6th Avenue in Manhattan-New York City – where music publishers and songwriters were located, in what were termed ‘music factories’.

‘Tin Pan Alley’ is actually  a derogatory ‘slang’ term deriving from around 1910 – that was used to describe the sound from the old cheap upright pianos that could be heard drifting from the open windows of these Manhattan ‘music factories’ – where the sound was liked to a load of old tin pans being banged together.

in the 1930’s Denmark Street became known locally as ‘Little Tokyo’ as a number of Japanese businesses moved in and started operating from the street – but primarily, Denmark Street will always be famous for its ‘music’ and for being Britain’s ‘Tin Pan Alley’.

The very first music publisher, set up business in Denmark Street in 1911 – at no’s 8 & 11 – and other publishers followed.

In 1926 the weekly music paper ‘Melody Maker’ was founded and run from no.8 Denmark Street.

In 1952, the other mainstream popular weekly music paper – the ‘New Musical Express’  set up business and operated from no. 5 Denmark Street.

Throughout the 1960’s – the publishing side of the music business started to change – but songwriters were still prominent in Denmark Street.

East end songwriting legend ‘Lionel Bart’ who wrote the songs to the musical and film ‘Oliver’ – started his career working for publishers in the street. Lionel Bart was often referred to as the ‘King of Denmark Street’.

A young singer songwriter by the name of ‘Paul Simon’ (later of Simon & Garfunkel), was signed to ‘Mills Music’ based at no.20 Denmark Street. Mills Music made the big mistake of telling him that his songs ‘Homeward Bound’ and ‘The Sound of Silence’ had no commercial appeal whatsoever – and outright rejected them.

Also throughout the 1960’s, recording studios started to spring up in the Denmark Street basements.

The most famous of these recording studios was probably ‘Regent Sound Studio’ at no. 4 Denmark Street.

‘Regent Sound Studio’ was founded in 1961 – and was seen as a place where publishers and their songwriters, could record their songs, at an ‘affordable’ price.

The studio was based within the offices of ‘Essex Music’ a massive and major publisher at the time. The Rolling Stones manager at the time, the infamous ‘Andrew Loog Oldham’, used to use Essex Music’s offices, and so, in 1964,  was able to book his group – the ‘Rolling Stones’, some time in the studio to record their first album, and their first hit single ‘Not Fade Away’.

It wasn’t just the Stones who recorded material at Regent Sound Studio – the likes of the Kinks – Bee Gees – The Troggs – Tom Jones – Sandie Shaw – the Yardbirds – Black Sabbath plus many more – all recorded material at Regent Sound.

In the basement of no.8 Denmark Street, there was another recording studio – where 60’s star ‘Donovan’ recorded his major l hit “Catch the Wind”. 60’s teenage London session musicians ‘Jimmy Page’ and ‘John Paul Jones’ all played on material recorded in the studio at no. 8 Denmark Street – before they went on to form the globally famous ‘Led Zeppelin’ rock band.

No. 10/11 Denmark Street has been the home of the ‘Rose Morris & Co’ music publisher and instrument retailers since 1919. In fact, the very first ‘Rickenbacker’ guitar in Britain – often played by John Lennon and later Paul Weller – was sold from there is 1962.

Between recording sessions – all the muso’s would congregate in the now famous ‘Giaconda Cafe’ at no.9 Denmark Street – which is still there to this very day.

In 1969 ‘Top Gear Music’ became the first guitar retail shop to open in Denmark Street.

In 1970 a young teenage ‘Reginald Dwight’ (later-Elton John) worked as a tea-boy at no.20 Denmark Street – where he first met a teenage lyricist ‘Bernie Taupin’. Together they wrote loads of songs in Denmark Street, and took advantage of dirt cheap late night recording sessions, to knock out their newly composed material – the globally recognised ‘Your Song’ being just one of them. It is said that one day, whilst waiting for ‘Elton’ to arrive at work – Bernie Taupin went up onto the roof of no. 20 – and that is where the inspiration came from, for the line “I sat on the roof – and kicked off the moss – well a few of these verses, have got me quite cross”.

In the late 1970’s the ‘Sex Pistols’ manager ‘Malcolm McClaren’ bought and completely refurbished a rehearsal room with no.6 Denmark Street – to enable his ‘new’ group to write – practice – rehearse and demo – their material, before letting them loose on the world.

Denmark Street also has its ‘dark side’ – as no.s 1 -3 used to be a Job Centre, where the infamous serial killer ‘Dennis ‘Nilsen’ once worked – and it is said that he bought the pots and pans that he used to ‘boil’ his victims, from nearby Charing Cross Rd at the end of Denmark Street.

in 1990 – a group of music publishers got together and campaigned for Denmark Street to be re-branded as ‘Music Land’ in the same way as Drury Lane is called ‘Theatreland’, and Gerrard Street is called ‘Chinatown’…..but sadly, it didn’t happen.

In 2009 Denmark Street and its Grade II Listed houses, was identified by English Heritage as being in danger of being added to its ‘Heritage at Risk’ list – however, Camden Council acted quickly to protect it, by declaring Denmark Street  a ‘conservation’ area – so hopefully, this historic street will remain in place, for all to enjoy –  for a little while yet.

So – that’s Denmark Street for you.

But before heading off back home for a well earned rest – following a enjoyable few hours back on-the-road after a 7 week absence – I did something that I hadn’t done since the Covid19 pandemic lockdowns began in March 2020 – I went and had a ‘cheeky’ beer in a Soho pub.

Just down the road from Denmark Street, heading towards Soho, and off of the Charing Cross Road where all the theatres are – is the ‘Three Greyhounds” pub. – and that’s where I ended up on a blisteringly hot day – to sink a refreshing ‘cheeky’ one (even though, medically – I’m not really supposed to be touching any ‘grog’ as yet)

There’s been an Inn on the Three Greyhounds site since 1847– and the pub is so named because of the greyhound dogs that were used for ‘hunting’ by royalty and the gentry, when Soho was just a mass of wide open fields. Over the years the pub has been a regular haunt of punk legends The Sex Pistols and The Clash – and the pub was also featured in the once popular film ‘Bend it like Beckham’.

Anyway – having done as I was told to and tapped-in to the NHS ‘track & trace’ – I was ‘led’ to a freshly sanitised table – where, for the first time in 16 months, I sat and enjoyed a lovely ice-cold ‘post blog’ cheeky one – and luverly it was too

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See below – the full gallery of photos taken to support this blog