London’s Lost Music Venues

Paul Talling DAMAGED GOODS

Fascinating and depressing procession of vanished seminal niteries.

One conversation topic guaranteed to get memories flowing and hackles raised is those pubs, clubs and halls where so many life-changing gigs took place that have since fallen to the wrecking ball or homogenised gentrification.

Walking-tour guide Paul Talling, author of books on London’s lost rivers and derelict ruins, examines the fate of venues that were often as loved and vital as the bands they hosted. Often shocking is the flagrant disregard for historical significance shown by owners or developers for venues that often deserved listed status for the cultural history that manifested within their walls.

With the book divided into sections, Talling begins his potted histories with Central London’s 12 Bar (gone to Denmark Street-decimating Crossrail), Soho’s 2i’s coffee bar (birthplace of British rock’n’roll, now a fish ’n’ chip shop), Wardour Street’s Flamingo (betting shop), Tottenham Court Road’s UFO (shops), Dean Street’s historic Gossips (boutique hotel) and six different Marquee locations. Pre-gentrification Covent Garden is a hotbed of all-era venues, including Bunjies folk club (where unknown Dylan overran his set-time in ’62, now a restaurant), hippie epicentre Middle Earth (shoe shop), Rock Garden (Apple store) and fabled punk epicentre the Roxy (a shiny swimwear emporium).

East London includes Canning Town’s flattened 70s Oi hangout the Bridge House and shuttered Manor Park NWOBHM spawning ground the Ruskin Arms. North London abounds with apartment blocks and gastropubs, including Kentish Town’s Bull & Gate, Islington’s Buffalo Bar, Camden’s incinerated Clash watering hole the Caernarvon Castle and indie-mainstay Falcon, Edmonton’s Cooks Ferry Inn (demolished in ’74) and Angel’s Powerhaus. South East finds JAMCinvaded The Ambulance Station selling antique fireplaces, Croydon Greyhound (launch-pad for Faces, Mott, Sabbath and Queen) now housing, and the Cricketers a squatters’ ruin.

West and South West finds the High Numbers’ favourite Railway Hotel, Wealdstone, burned down in 2000, Kentish Town pub-rock nest the Tally Ho demolished for flats in 2006, Fulham Greyhound a vacant theme bar, and Hammersmith’s much-loved Clarendon a bus station.

That’s the tip of the iceberg. Leafing through these brief accounts and relentlessly depressing present-day photos, the definitive tome with full accounts and old photos is obviously still begging. As does the question, given current developments: how enormous will reprints be? ■■■■■■■■■■