Nick Mason, Roger Waters, and Richard Wright were architecture students with a passion for music; they were later joined by Syd Barrett, who had moved from Cambridge to London to study art. In 1965 they founded the Pink Floyd and began their incredible and long-lasting story, marked by a constant desire to experiment.
The Pink Floyd locations in London are numerous. This itinerary will take you to discover some still recognizable and inseparably linked to the band’s history.
London itinerary of Pink Floyd locations in 10 stops
1 All Saints Church Notting Hill
Where: Clydesdale Road – W11 1JE. Tube: Ladbroke Grove or Westbourne Park.
The Pink Floyd played in the hall of this church eleven times, between September 30 and November 29, 1966. All concerts were organized by the London Free School, an artist collective aimed at organizing local cultural events. Among the group’s members were also Emily Young, the inspiration for the Pink Floyd song See Emily Play, who later became a famous sculptor, and Anjelica Huston.
Another building in the same area used by the London Free School was the Tabernacle, a circular red brick structure, built in the late 19th century as an evangelical Christian church and, after years of abandonment, became a place of squatting and cultural production. The Rolling Stones, and perhaps also the Pink Floyd, used it as a rehearsal space.
The London Free School helped transform the Notting Hill Carnival from a local event into the great outdoor celebration we know today.
2 Roundhouse
Where: Chalk Farm Road – NW1 8EH. Tube: Chalk Farm.
The Roundhouse was built in the mid-19th century as part of the London – Birmingham railway line infrastructure. It featured a turntable that allowed the trains to reverse direction once they reached the terminus. It was used for this purpose for only ten years because, due to the increase in transport demand, trains became too long for the structure. For about a century, it was used for other purposes, including gin storage.
In the 1960s, it was transformed into a cultural center and inaugurated on October 15, 1966, with the All Night Rave concert, the launch event for the counterculture magazine International Times. The headliners were Soft Machine, while for Pink Floyd it was their first major concert.
Pink Floyd played at the Roundhouse eleven more times between 1966 and 1971. Among these, in December 1966, they performed at the New Year’s Eve rave Psychedelicamania along with The Who.
The Roundhouse has hosted concerts by some of rock’s biggest names. Just to name a few: the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, The Clash, and The Doors, in their only indoor UK concert.
3 Saville Theatre
Where: 135 Shaftesbury Avenue – WC2H 8AH. Tube: Tottenham Court Road or Covent Garden.
Pink Floyd played at this theater twice in 1967, on March 5 and October 1.
The Saville Theatre was inaugurated in 1931. It’s an Art Deco style building, characterized by a long bas-relief running along almost forty meters of the main façade and a huge arched window above the entrance.
The Pink Floyd concerts took place during the brief period when the Saville was owned by Brian Epstein, the legendary manager of the Beatles. During the year he owned it, The Who, Jimi Hendrix, Elton John, and many others performed there, besides Pink Floyd. The Beatles shot the promotional video for “Hello Goodbye” here.
The Saville became a cinema at the end of the 1970s. Today, despite the addition of Odeon chain signage after its acquisition in 2001, the original façade still proudly stands.
4 Sound Techniques
Where: 46a Old Church Street – SW3 5BY. Tube: Sloane Square.
The Sound Techniques recording studios, in the Chelsea district, are mainly linked to English folk rock names like Nick Drake, Fairport Convention, and Steeleye Span. Pink Floyd recorded their first two singles, Arnold Layne and See Emily Play, here.
The building was originally a dairy factory, hence the curious decoration with a cow’s head. The inscriptions on the façade tell us the company was founded in 1796, while the Chelsea building was built in 1908.
Sound Techniques were active from 1965 to 1976. In 1976 the lease expired, and the two owners, Geoff Frost and John Wood, unable to purchase the building due to lack of funds, closed the studios, continuing their parallel work producing recording studio equipment in a lab they had meanwhile set up in Suffolk.
The Old Church Street building now hosts private residences.
5 Alexandra Palace
Where: Alexandra Palace Way – N22 7AY. Transport: Finsbury Park tube and W3 bus.
On April 29, 1967, the Great Hall of Alexandra Palace hosted The 14 Hour Technicolor Dream, a marathon of music and performing arts created to raise funds for the International Times magazine. Pink Floyd were the headliners and played last, at dawn, having come directly from Amsterdam where they were involved in recording a Dutch TV program. John Lennon was in the audience and witnessed a performance by Yoko Ono. At that time, the two had met only once, at an Ono exhibition.
Exactly three months later, Pink Floyd played again at Alexandra Palace at the Love in Festival. On that occasion, the London concert was the second of the evening, as a few hours earlier they had played in Norfolk.
Alexandra Palace is the only surviving Victorian People’s Palace in London, despite having suffered two severe fires through its history that destroyed various parts. The Great Hall, with its unmistakable stained glass window, holds over 10,000 seats and hosts concerts, fairs, and sporting events.
6 Kensington Olympia
Where: 7239 Olympia Way – W14 8UX. Tube: Kensington (Olympia)
On December 22, 1967, the Olympia hosted the Christmas On Earth Continued concert with Pink Floyd, Traffic, Eric Burdon and the Animals, and headliner Jimi Hendrix. It was one of Syd Barrett’s last live appearances. In January the following year, David Gilmour joined him for four concerts before replacing him permanently.
The band rented the Olympia for rehearsals and stage setup for the Animals tour, which started in January 1977.
The Olympia, characterized by a beautiful glass and iron vault, was built in 1886 as a fair space. In Victorian times, fairs were events part educational and part recreational, often featuring exotic environment reconstructions. The nearby Earls Court was built for a similar purpose and dates back to the same period as the Olympia. Recently demolished to make way for new housing, Earls Court hosted numerous Pink Floyd concerts, including eleven dates of The Wall tour and the final fourteen shows of the 1994 Pulse tour, the band’s last.
The Olympia is still used for numerous trade fairs.
7 Rainbow Theatre
Where: 232 Seven Sisters Road – N4 3NP. Tube: Finsbury Park.
The Rainbow Theatre is a key venue in the history of The Dark Side of The Moon. A year before the album’s release, Pink Floyd played the sequence of all tracks live, some parts still being finalized. The Rainbow was used for rehearsals in January 1972 and, between February 17 and 20, hosted four performances, the first of which was a press show.
In November 1973, the band played there again on two dates at the end of the tour following the album release. The proceeds from these concerts were donated to Robert Wyatt, Soft Machine’s drummer, who had become paraplegic after falling from a fourth-floor window during a party.
Built in 1930 as an Astoria chain cinema, it was then the largest in London with 3,000 seats. Starting in 1971, for ten years, it became a rock concert venue. Artists who performed there included David Bowie (as Ziggy Stardust), Genesis, Queen, and the Jacksons. In 1995, after fourteen years of abandonment, it was acquired by the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God.
8 Chelsea Cloisters
Where: Sloane Avenue – SW3 3DW. Tube: Sloane Square.
This Chelsea residence was Syd Barrett’s last address in London. He moved there at the end of 1973 and stayed until 1979, when he ran out of royalties from albums published with Pink Floyd and had to return to Cambridge to live with his mother.
Many stories exist about his stay at Chelsea Cloisters, and their truthfulness is uncertain. It’s said, for example, that he rented two apartments: one on the sixth floor where he kept guitars and amplifiers, and one on the ninth floor where he lived. It is said he practically had no contact with the outside world and spent time sitting on the floor watching seven TVs he kept on simultaneously. He refused visitors: when ex-girlfriend Gayla Pinion visited, she found all windows closed, curtains drawn, and a horrible smell. During his time at the Cloisters, Barrett never played his guitars, only touching them to give them away.
9 Britannia Row Studios
Where: 33 Britannia Row – N1 8HQ. Tube: Angel.
After recording Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here at Abbey Road Studios, Pink Floyd set up their own Britannia Row studios in 1975. They recorded the Animals album and some parts of The Wall, including the single Another Brick in the Wall. For the famous children’s choir, some students from nearby Islington Green School were recruited. Their music teacher prepared the song in class and then took them to the studios for the recording without the headmistress’s approval. When the record was released, its lyrics caused uproar, and the headmistress banned the students from having any contact with the band, inadvertently embodying the spirit of the song.
At the time, the school received a £1,000 cheque and later a platinum disc. Recently a lawyer convinced the former students to sue Pink Floyd to receive proper payment as musicians in a recording session.
Nick Mason acquired the Britannia Row Studios, which he sold in the early 1990s but retained ownership of the building. Initially used for equipped offices, it is currently awaiting conversion into apartments.
10 Battersea Power Station
Where: 188 Kirtling Street, Nine Elms – SW8 5BN. Tube: Battersea Park.
The iconic Battersea Power Station was immortalized on the album cover of Animals, released in 1977. For the photoshoot, an inflatable pig was commissioned and tethered to one of the station’s chimneys. However, the rope unexpectedly broke and the pig flew along the flight path to Heathrow Airport, causing surprise and panic among pilots. Police helicopters followed it until it landed in Kent.
Battersea Power Station was built in Art Deco style between 1929 and 1955 based on a design by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, famous for designing the red telephone boxes, Liverpool Cathedral, and the Southbank Power Station, now home to the Tate Modern. It was decommissioned in 1975: productivity was declining due to outdated equipment and operating costs were too high.
The Grade II status protected the building from destruction and bizarre transformations. The power station and the surrounding area were acquired by a Malaysian consortium creating housing and offices, some of which have been purchased by Apple.
