Nick Mason, Roger Waters, and Richard Wright are architecture students with a passion for music; they were 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 history, characterized by a constant desire to experiment.
The Pink Floyd places in London are numerous. This itinerary will take you to discover some still recognizable and inseparably linked to the band’s history.
London itinerary for Pink Floyd places in 10 stops
1 All Saints Church Notting Hill
Where: Clydesdale Road – W11 1JE. Underground: Ladbroke Grove or Westbourne Park.
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, a collective of artists whose purpose was to organize cultural events at a local level. Among the group participants were Emily Young, the inspirer of the Pink Floyd song See Emily Play, who later became a famous sculptor, and Anjelica Houston.
Another building in the same area used by the London Free School was the Tabernacle, a circular red brick construction, built in the second half of the 19th century as an evangelical Christian church and, after years of abandonment, became a squatting and cultural production place. The Rolling Stones, and possibly Pink Floyd too, used it as a rehearsal room.
The London Free School helped turn the Notting Hill Carnival from a local event into the large outdoor festival we know today.
2 Roundhouse
Where: Chalk Farm Road – NW1 8EH. Underground: Chalk Farm.
The Roundhouse was built in the mid-19th century as part of the London – Birmingham railway line infrastructure. It was equipped with a turntable platform that allowed trains to reverse direction once they reached the terminus. It was used this way for only ten years because trains, due to increased demand, became too long for this facility. Thus, for about a century, it was used for other purposes, including as a gin storage.
In the Sixties it was converted into a cultural center and inaugurated on October 15, 1966 with the All Night Rave concert, the launch event of 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 Psychedelicamania New Year’s rave along with The Who.
The Roundhouse has hosted concerts by the most important rock artists. To name just a few: Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Clash, and The Doors, in their only indoor concert in Great Britain.
3 Saville Theatre
Where: 135 Shaftesbury Avenue – WC2H 8AH. Underground: Tottenham Court Road or Covent Garden.
Pink Floyd played in this theater twice in 1967, on March 5 and October 1.
The Saville Theatre was inaugurated in 1931. It is an Art Deco style construction, characterized by a long bas-relief running along the nearly forty meters of the main facade and a huge arched window above the entrance.
Pink Floyd’s concerts took place during the brief period when Saville was taken over by Brian Epstein, legendary manager of the Beatles. During the year it was under his ownership, besides Pink Floyd, The Who, Jimi Hendrix, Elton John, and many others performed there. The Beatles shot the promotional video for “Hello Goodbye” at this location.
Saville became a cinema from the late 1970s. Today, despite the addition of the Odeon chain signs which acquired it in 2001, the original facade is still proudly displayed.
4 Sound Techniques
Where: 46a Old Church Street – SW3 5BY. Underground: Sloane Square.
The Sound Techniques recording studios, located in the Chelsea neighborhood, are mainly associated with English folk rock names like Nick Drake, Fairport Convention, and Steeleye Span. Pink Floyd recorded their first two singles here, Arnold Layne and See Emily Play.
The building was originally a dairy factory: hence the curious decoration with the cow head. The inscriptions on the facade tell us the company was founded in 1796, while the Chelsea building was constructed in 1908.
Sound Techniques was active between 1965 and 1976. In 1976 the lease ran out and the two owners, Geoff Frost and John Wood, unable to buy the property due to lack of funds, closed the studios, continuing their parallel activity of recording studio equipment production in the workshop they had meanwhile set up in Suffolk.
The Old Church Street building now houses private residences.
5 Alexandra Palace
Where: Alexandra Palace Way – N22 7AY. Transport: Underground Finsbury Park and bus W3.
On April 29, 1967, the Great Hall of Alexandra Palace hosted The 14 Hour Technicolor Dream, a marathon of music and performing art 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 engaged recording a Dutch TV program. Among the event audience was John Lennon who watched a performance by Yoko Ono. At that time, they had only met once before, at an Ono exhibition.
Exactly three months later, Pink Floyd played again at Alexandra Palace, at the Love in Festival. Even then, the London concert was the second of the evening since a few hours earlier they had played in Norfolk.
Alexandra Palace is the only surviving Victorian-era People’s Palace in London, despite having suffered two major fires in its history that wiped out several parts. The Great Hall, with its unmistakable stained-glass window, has a capacity of over 10,000 seats and hosts concerts, fairs and sporting events.
6 Kensington Olympia
Where: 7239 Olympia Way – W14 8UX. Underground: Kensington (Olympia)
On December 22, 1967, Olympia hosted the Christmas On Earth Continued concert with Pink Floyd, Traffic, Eric Burdon and the Animals and, as headliner, Jimi Hendrix. It was one of Syd Barrett’s last live appearances. In January the following year, he was joined in four concerts by David Gilmour, who then replaced him permanently.
The band rented the Olympia for rehearsals and the set-up of the Animals tour, which began in January 1977.
Olympia, characterized by a beautiful glass and iron vault, was built in 1886 as an exhibition space. In Victorian times fairs were events halfway between educational and recreational and offered reconstructions of exotic environments. With the same function the nearby Earls Court was built, whose origin dates back to the same period as Olympia. Recently demolished to create new housing, Earls Court hosted numerous Pink Floyd concerts. Among these, eleven dates from The Wall tour and the fourteen final dates of the Pulse tour in 1994, the band’s last.
Olympia is still used for many sector fairs.
7 Rainbow Theatre
Where: 232 Seven Sisters Road – N4 3NP. Underground: Finsbury Park.
Rainbow Theatre is a fundamental place in the history of The Dark Side of The Moon. Already a year before the album’s release, Pink Floyd were playing live the entire track sequence, with some parts still under development. Rainbow was used for rehearsals in January 1972 and, between February 17 and 20, was the theater for four performances, the first reserved for the press.
In November 1973 the band played there again on two dates, at the end of the tour following the album’s release. The proceeds of the two concerts went to charity for Robert Wyatt, drummer of Soft Machine, who became paraplegic after falling from the fourth floor of a building during a party.
Rainbow was built in 1930 as a cinema of the Astoria chain. At the time it was the largest in London, with a capacity of three thousand seats. Starting in 1971, for ten years, it was used for rock concerts. Among the artists who played here were 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. Underground: 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 the records published with Pink Floyd and had to return to Cambridge to his mother’s home.
Many stories exist about his stay at Chelsea Cloisters, and their truthfulness cannot be fully ascertained. It seems, for example, that he had 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 basically had no contact with the outside world and spent time sitting on the floor watching the seven televisions he kept on simultaneously. He rejected outsiders’ visits: when ex-girlfriend Gayla Pinion went to see him, she reported that all windows were closed, curtains drawn, and there was a horrible smell. During his stay at the Cloisters, Barrett never played his guitars. He only touched them to give them away.
9 Britannia Row Studios
Where: 33 Britannia Row – N1 8HQ. Underground: Angel.
After recording Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here at Abbey Road Studios, Pink Floyd set up their studios, Britannia Row, in 1975. Here they recorded the album Animals and parts of The Wall, including the single Another Brick in the Wall. For the famous boys’ choir, some students of the nearby Islington Green School were recruited. Their music teacher had them prepare the song in class and then took them to the studios for the recording, without the headmistress’s authorization. When the record was released, the lyrics caused a stir and the headmistress forbade the students any contact with the band, inadvertently embodying the spirit of the song.
At the time the school received a check for 1,000 pounds and, when achieved, a platinum record. Recently a lawyer convinced the former students to sue Pink Floyd to receive proper payment as musicians in a recording session.
Nick Mason took ownership of 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. Underground: Battersea Park.
The iconic Battersea power station was immortalized on the cover of the album Animals, released in 1977. For the photo shoot an inflatable pig was commissioned, which was moored to one of the chimneys of the station. However, the rope unexpectedly broke and the pig found itself flying along the route to Heathrow Airport, causing surprise and panic among the pilots. It was followed by police helicopters until it landed in Kent.
Battersea Power Station was built in Art Deco style between 1929 and 1955 by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, known for designing red telephone booths, Liverpool Cathedral, and the Southbank power station, now home to Tate Modern. It was decommissioned in 1975: its productivity was declining due to the age of the plants and the running costs were becoming too high.
The Grade II status protected the building, saving it from destruction and bizarre transformations. The power station and surrounding area were acquired by a Malaysian consortium that is creating housing and offices, some of which have been purchased by Apple.
