Middle Earth

Between August 1967 and March 1968, the likes of Pink Floyd, The Who, The Pretty Things, Jefferson Airplane, Captain Beefheart, The Byrds (with Gram Parsons), Marc Bolan and T.Rex played the legendary Middle Earth club.

Rock Garden

Opened in 1976, a basement venue in this Covent Garden corner – back then called the Rock Garden – hosted a wide variety of new wave and indie bands including U2, XTC, Adam and The Ants, and Suede. The Smiths played their first London gig here in March 1983.

Deptford Soul City

The first specialist soul records shop in Europe opened here in Deptford of all places, in autumn 1966, the brainchild of “Esperanto-speaking vegan-anarchist” Dave Godin and his pals, David Nathan and Robert Blackmore.