Denmark Street on a sunny day (some snaps and a longing for an afternoon of window shopping)

StruanRobertson

I was cycling west to east on my way home across London yesterday afternoon and thought I'd stop in a take some snaps of Denmark Street.

If it was this time a year ago, I'd have locked my bike up and spent a cheeky hour perusing the guitars available, dreaming of buying some sort of vintage guitar that I will keep for the rest of my life and will definitely make me a better guitarist. Might have even snuck in a pint with a friend that worked in Soho on my way home too.

I really hope the street comes back to life when things open up. It's a part of London history, but also, it's just a nice place to go and look at guitars in the flesh. Walking up the creaky stairs in Hanks to look at all the oddball guitars on the walls, or speaking to the always friendly guys in Regents Sounds is a different thing to buying a guitar online.

The new development at the end of the street is pretty imposing, but on a sunny day like yesterday you can imagine that once the workmen have gone and the scaffolding is down that it'll still be a mecca for people who love guitars.

Pics below:

Jalapeno

Think a lot more is due to be flattened, sadly.  Same thing has happened to NYC's music shop area, 48th St

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/personal-history/the-vanished-music-stores-of-new-york-citys-forty-eighth-street

idiotwindow

Yes, it will be a shame if the only guitar shops left are out-of-town warehouse places like Peach or hit and miss chains like PMT and GuitarGuitar. Denmark Street is far from ideal as a place to go and actually buy a guitar but it's still an ok place to pass an hour or two. My favourite there is the Musicroom sheet music specialist shop where I often go and buy some music (with the good intentions of learning it only to add it to all the other music books I have but rarely look at).

Switch625

The development work there is awful, what are they building, flats?

You missed out Sixty Six Sounds on the corner in your pics, it's a nice place to check out and the famous Andy Gibson works out of there for all your luthier needs.

SPECTRUM001

Thanks for posting these. It is so sad that Denmark St has lost its mojo (in the way we know it), but still great to see businesses survive. I guess they have skeleton staff shipping out mail order etc.

Likewise, as someone that worked in Soho, I am one of the lucky bods that could pop in to browse on a regular basis - and as a result bought guitars and accessories from Wunjo.

Good times...which will return.

Epsilon

Lots of happy memories on that street. Got my favourite acoustic in Hanks and an LP in Macaris shortly after moving to London. Wunjos is always worth a visit - they let me head up to the office room to try out a 12 string when the shop floor was a bit noisy and there was no rush or pressure at all.

Vintage stuff is often overpriced at sticker price, but they are mostly pretty open to negotiation in my experience. I've actually found prices for new gear to always be quite competitive.

Sadly I suspect it will all be consigned to history if developers get their way.

duotone

Brilliant photos, definitely an old world charm about the place & those signs also. Can’t wait to go back & enjoy a wander around & then a few beers in De Hems (Chinatown) when ever that may be. June/July/August??

dazzajl

Ahhhhhh man. Nearly every weekend was spent wandering and gazing there in my teens

Musicwolf

The trouble with nostalgia these days is that it just isn’t what it used to be.  Denmark St along with all traditional retail is changing and the old days won’t come back, but we also change.  I bought my first bass guitar in about 1977.  The guitar department of my local store seemed like an Aladin’s cave full of wonderful stuff, most of which was alien to me, and almost all of it out of my financial grasp.  If I could go back in time as my modern self I bet that a lot of it would be crap.

Sometimes it’s nice to wallow in the past for a few minutes but then do yourself a favour.  Look around at all the wonderful toys we have today and remember – what a time to be alive.

mudslide73

I was expecting to spot Strike or Robin in the background

SlopeSoarer

mudslide73 said:

I was expecting to spot Strike or Robin in the background

Ha, I just finished reading The Cuckoo's Calling last night:-) 

I've never been to Denmark Street but seen and heard a lot about it. Nice to see the photos, thanks for sharing.

stonevibe

I used to pop to the church around the corner at the top of Denmark St for a cheeky lunchtime joint and then head back to selling music gear for the rest if my day. Spent many years in the bars and clubs around that place in my youth, practically lived there.

impmann

Its not like it was, thats for sure. 

But equally - there were some utter rogues who operated down there. I won't name names on here for fear of getting the forum into trouble but there were more fakes, lies and bullshit pedalled by *some* of the shops there than a field full of politicians.

I don't miss that. I don't miss the inflated prices "because we gotta pay the rent somehow". I don't miss struggling to get expensive purchases home on the bloody tube (and stepping over the drunks in the underpass under Centre Point). I don't miss the price fixing. I don't miss the bullshit. I don't miss a couple of the "characters" that operated down there...

I do miss the 'seedy glamour' of it - and of Soho as it used to be. But probably just the notion of it, not the reality. And as I'm now in my 50s  the reality is I'd probably look like one of those "weird old guys" that I used to mock when I was 18... I did used to enjoy window shopping, trying guitars out - at a time when the local shops didn't have quite the same variety. But having been burned a couple of times there by unscrupulous dealers (and my own naivety), perhaps that romance and glamour got tainted.

As yourself a question - aside from those who live/work in London, when was the last time you traveled to Denmark Street to make a large purchase? I haven't for about 20 years and it wouldn't even cross my mind to do so now, even with my rose-tinted nostalgia glasses on. 

Its sad to see it all closed up and I would be sad to see it all flattened to 'gentrify' it. But I'm more sad about the Astoria getting demolished to make way for CrossRail. Denmark Street, as a whole, trades on the past - a faded glory, a nostalgia for the way it was (or rather the way folks like to remember it) and whilst its sad to watch the changes, those changes have an air of inevitability...

JohnS37

I bought some gear down there back in the day.  Bought a second hand lipstick red Jaguar, 1965 date, for £65.  That would have been around 1971 I think.  I played it for a bit, then sprayed it metallic purple and sold it.  Wish I hadn’t!

LPManic

I miss London.

Stevepage

I’d love to see the street brought back to life like it was. But I haven’t been excited about that road for what must be close to 20 years now. 

Andy’s, Roka’s, Rhodes, soho Soundhouse, Sound Control under Virgin Megastore were all places I would visit with excitement at all the amazing stuff for sale and just the overall atmosphere. But with the big stores going and then Crossrail it just killed it for me. I used to Have to visit Denmark Street when I was ever in London, now It doesn’t enter my head. But then I don’t really like London any more either. 

This pandemic will have accelerated big changes in the high street so who knows. It may disappear altogether or it may spark a revival. I hope it’s the later but I can’t see it happening.

HarrySeven

Unusual lone contrary voice...

Sorry, but I've never seen the attraction...

BintyTwanger77

I've had consistently fantastic service from Regent Sounds and Wunjo's, it would be really sad if Denmark St went because of philistine property developers.

SPECTRUM001

My old office was at the end of Denmark St - I could see Wunjo Acoustic from my window.

We used to play "spot the star", and drink in the Royal George and The Angel. Ultimately we had to move out as one of our buildings in Goslett Yard was demolished for Crossrail. 

I still get the nostalgia thing on a daily basis (I work in Music Publishing) as I am looking at contracts drawn up with Denmark St and Charing Cross Road addresses. It is really sad to see 21st century industry take over, however times change, and will change again.

Much as I loved the history and browsing the guitar shops, ironically I feel happily invisible in one of the larger more anonymous stores...

kentuckyklira

Switch625 said:

The development work there is awful, what are they building, flats?

The big plan is to make every place in the world look the same!

SteveRobinson

I won't miss the shops particularly but I did used to like going to the 12 Bar Club whenever I was in London.