The Borderline staged its final gigs last week after 34 years. The 250-capacity venue bang in the middle of London was an important staging post for bands on the way up and played host to an impressive array of stars – from a secret gig by R.E.M – playing as “Bingo Hand Job” to promote 1991’s Out of Time album – to early Oasis, Muse, Debbie Harry, Ed Sheeran, Sheryl Crow, Ryan Adams, ex-Gene frontman Martin Rossiter, P J Harvey, Skunk Anansie, The Ordinary Boys and the Counting Crows.
For a generation it was a standby club night favourite – “the only decent place to go in the West End. You always knew there’d be decent music and you could wear jeans without anyone telling you off” says one late ’90s regular. More recently, Borderline was a centre for Americana music and a hot ticket for indie aficionados. Having passed through a variety of operators, it was given a plush makeover by owners DHP Family just two years ago. “This is a beautiful venue, you guys are lucky to have it,” Travis Hawley, the lead singer of LA band Night Riots (pictured) told the crowd on the last live music night on Thursday.
DHP said the decision to move came because of rising rent, rates and the redevelopment plans of landlords RDI REIT (Real Estate Investment Trust). Managing director George Akins told Music Venue Trust that if DHP couldn’t make the venue work, he doubted anyone seriously passionate about live music could. They’re retaining the Borderline name to use potentially in other locations: they also run the Garage, Hackney’s Oslo and venues in Bristol and Nottingham.
The north-east corner of Soho, next to the works for Crossrail at Tottenham Court Road, is transforming into an alien glass and metal landscape. Hoardings announce the forthcoming Outernet hub (including a huge “cultural amphitheatre” music space), Nimax’s “theatre for plays” and luxury flats. At the Lightbox, which houses Borderline in the basement and G-A-Y Late at ground floor level, RDI won planning permission in April for three new floors of office space, which may require the venue operators to leave their premises for an extended period.
Producer and designer Alex Parsonage, who fought to save Madame JoJo’s, said he was amazed that the Borderline has held out this long. Manette Street, through which the Borderline is accessed is, like other side streets off Charing Cross Road, a petty crime hotspot – Soho Dairy market stallholder and small business campaigner Robin Smith was the victim of a mugging there. The boarding up of the southern side of the street for redevelopment hasn’t made it feel any safer or more appealing.
The Music Venue Trust’s Beverley Whitrick says that DHP were “obviously gutted” to be shuttering the Borderline, given its history, and points out they have the interests of the whole group to consider. DHP made no submission to RDI’s planning proposals at the beginning of the year and Jeremy Joseph of G-A-Y, Borderline’s fellow tenant, says they only told him of their intention to shut down an hour before it became public knowledge. RDI confirms that DHP requested early termination of its lease, which they agreed to. There was no occasion for a lively campaign to save the Borderline, as there was for the 100 Club or for The Social in Fitzrovia. “You can’t save someone who wants to go” says Soho campaigner and documentary-maker Henry Scott-Irvine.
Rents across the area are spiralling. Sam Shaker who runs Jazz After Dark in Greek Street says his was hiked from £44,000 to £77,000 per annum six months ago. Neither RDI – which says it is “committed to becoming the UK’s leading income focused REIT” – nor DHP will confirm how much the Borderline’s rent has increased. But G-A-Y Late, in the equivalent space upstairs, saw its initial rent demand soar by 133 per cent, from £300,000 to £700,000. In compensation, Joseph lobbied for and was granted an exceptional 4 a.m. licence from Westminster Council (but had to reduce G-A-Y Old Compton’s opening hours in return).
With ticket price splits mostly going to the artist, there’s a limited amount that venues which are near-capacity can do to generate extra revenue without losing trade. “The only way we’re going to reverse this trend [of venue closures] is by ensuring rents are brought under control,” says West End ward Labour councillor Pancho Lewis. Former Green Party London Assembly Member Darren Johnson wants to see music megastars passionate about the grassroots scene buying up venues to be run as charitable trusts. The Music Venue Trust itself has the ambition of buying up freeholds.
Meanwhile, GLA-commissioned research found 21 of 95 grassroots London venues were at risk of closure as a result of the business rates revaluation of April 2017, accounting for £7.4 million in Gross Value Added productivity. Another 41 faced either significant financial challenges or were likely to cut the number of emerging artists they put on in favour of a more commercial programme. Both G-A-Y Late and the 100 Club in Oxford Street, a West End stalwart since 1964 (and with a predecessor dating from 1942), which has has more than one brush with closure in the last 10 years, faced business rates of around 47 per cent higher after revaluation. Owner Jeff Horton told the House of Commons DCMS committee that applying for hardship relief was “difficult” and “humiliating”. G-A-Y Late has recently been informed that, following a two year appeal process, its rates liability has
been reduced to below pre-revaluation levels.
The Music Venue Trust and industry body UK Music successfully campaigned to have the “agent of change” principle – making property companies responsible for sound-proofing residents in new-builds near venues, rather than the venues themselves – incorporated in the National Planning Policy Framework. They are now lobbying hard over business rates. While local authorities have the power to award discretionary relief, the Treasury’s ruling not to extend as standard the rates relief for small retailers, pubs, bars and restaurants to music venues as well was “a wrong decision” that left everyone “horrified” says Beverley Whitrick of Music Venue Trust. The Liberal Democrats have a party conference motion on extending rate relief to music venues, and another calling for a comprehensive review of business taxation.
Deputy shadow culture secretary Kevin Brennan thinks Philip Hammond’s unwillingness to budge on rates was due to an institutional reluctance by the Treasury to reopen the issue, for fear of getting a queue of people wanting exceptions. Tom Kiehl of UK Music hopes Hammond’s successor, Sajid Javid, who as communities minister approved the adoption of agent of change, will take a different, more entrepreneurial approach. As London Mayor, Boris Johnson launched a plan which called for a review into the potential for full rates relief for grassroots venues. But the only response campaigners have had from the new government so far is officials writing back to explain the business rate regime.
Latest figures show a year-on-year growth in the number of grassroots London music venues, from 94 to 100, including in outer areas such Leytonstone’s Ballroom and St John’s Church Music Hall. The landscape is volatile, however, with nine venues closing compared with 15 newcomers. Recent closures include Coldharbour Lane dance stalwart Club 414 and the Five Bells in New Cross, whose new owners unceremoniously told promoters there would be no more live music with immediate effect. Soho has seen an inexorable decline, losing the Astoria, LA2 and the Metro Club to Crossrail in 2009, and the earlier incarnation of Madame Jojo’s and Denmark Street venues 12 Bar Club and Alley Cat within a few months in 2014-15.
Lenny George, manager of the Borderline in 2001 when it was “a sweaty basement venue with a fantastic atmosphere” points out the connection of the West End with almost every British music scene. Music journalist Sean Hannam says artists relish the showbiz appeal of playing at a West End venue, “a vital part of the capital’s city centre and culture, and also its history”. “Every city needs a beating heart” says Henry Scott-Irvine. It remains to be seen what the 2,000-capacity music and events space at the Outernet and its two satellite venues will offer emerging as opposed to established artists. Borderline fan and repeat performer Don Graham takes the view that it’s now inevitable all West End grassroots venues will close and energies should be focused on protecting venues in North and East London.
Musician Peter Parker has run two venues, a drum shop and a clothing shop in Soho, all now closed. He’s now fighting to save his bolt-hole in Old Compton Street (“I feel like the last samurai”, he says). He observes that Soho has always evolved, but the pace of change is new. He doesn’t mind so much the arrival of upscale boutiques and restaurants because at least that’s transparent gentrification. But he’s strongly critical of Consolidated Group for making Denmark Street “a zombified version of what it used to be”, appropriating its bohemian cool while pushing out or marginalising small music businesses.
A draft Soho neighbourhood plan, drawn up under the auspices of the business and resident-led Soho Neighbourhood Forum, is out for consultation until 11 September. One proposal from earlier consultation rounds, a Soho special policy area, forms part of Westminster Council’s draft 2019-40 City Plan. It would include a check on knocking buildings together behind facades, assessing changes of use to restaurants and bars with a view to cumulative impact, and support for small and medium enterprise workspaces, and LGBT and new live music venues.
Conservative councillor for West End ward Jonathan Glanz is sympathetic to independent venues that are are finding it “increasingly difficult” in the economic environment, picking out for praise Jeremy Joseph for offering the variety which is fundamental to Soho’s character. But he also warns against trying to preserve Soho in aspic and suggests the teeming crowds that come to it on a summer evening are proof of the success of the council’s stewardship. For his part, Joseph wants landlords to be forced to care about community interest, with legal protection for businesses that have been in their premises for 10 years. Soho Dairy’s Robin Smith thinks that by the very nature of the area, Soho retailers and entrepreneurs have more than the average amount of fight in them, but he worries that local businesses might not survive long enough for policy changes designed to help them to be implemented.
RDI says it is too early to confirm when the basement vacated by the Borderline will be re-let, after reportedly rejecting G-A-Y’s proposal to take the space initially on a short lease. Live music fans feeling bereft will have to travel elsewhere for their fix – perhaps further out of town, to the new wave of venues cropping up in Zone 3 and beyond.
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Killed by Crossrail – London’s St Giles & Tin Pan Alley
In 2008 The Crossrail Act was passed. In 2009 this led to the demolition of three of London’s most popular music venues; namely The Astoria, The L.A.2 and The Metro Club. They were all served Compulsory Purchase Orders and served notice to quit. These venues have never resurfaced.
GLA Mayors promised that The Astoria would be replaced with a huge new music venue. It has not been replaced. Instead, a recently ‘disgraced’ former Westminster Conservative Councillor, Robert Davis, gave Nica Burns’ Nimax Theatres permission to build a “Theatre for Plays” – not a music venue. This is currently being built on the site of the former Astoria.
In November 2013 Camden Council’s former Area Planning Officer, Amanda Peck, passed plans enabling the demolition of Upper St Giles High Street, leaving a frontispiece, only. The plans enabled the complete demolition of Andrew Borde Street, facing Centrepoint, and the total demolition of Denmark Place to include some of Charing Cross Road’s east side.
Furthermore, permission was granted for the reduction of the ground floor space assigned to the music shops in Denmark Street – London’s Tin Pan Alley. Music retail has since seen up to three quarters of their shop space removed in rear end demolition. Upstairs space is apparently promised.
The 12 Bar Club
The 12 Bar Club in Denmark Street aka Tin Pan Alley ran from 1994 until 2015. The venue was served notice to quit in November 2014 by Consolidated – The Landlord and The Developer. Itinerant 12 Bar Club staff were not made aware of this ‘termination’ till after Christmas 2014. The final 12 Bar concert took place just two weeks later on Wednesday January 14th 2015.
The only official comment that the venue’s owner ‘Carlo’ publicly gave was to filmmaker John Rogers in his ‘Drift Report Youtube of January 2015. Surprisingly and with a certain spirit of ambivalence, Carlo was heard to cite a line from John Lennon, “The future happens when you’re making plans!”
The 12 Bar Club moved to a new location in London’s Holloway Road in March 2015 to a street that already boasted five Music Venues. This was always going to be tough, especially for a West End interloper insinuating itself upon the edgy Holloway Road
Local annoyance that a renowned ‘Soccer Bar’ known as Phibbers was turning into ‘a Music Venue’ soon became apparent. This was evidenced by local ‘firms’ causing trouble – one Sunday gig in April 2015 saw the Bar’s toilets being baseball batted into sudden ruin. Bar staff hastily scurried about putting electrical goods onto milk crates to stop everything shorting-out as water cascaded across the floor and under the stage. The evening’s gig was quickly cancelled. The bar emptied and closed.
March 2017 saw the freeholder Enterprise Inns terminate The 12 Bar’s lease in Holloway. It is claimed that ‘late leaseholder payments’ were due to Enterprise Inns. Staff were locked-out of their very own venue by Enterprise Inns who changed the locks almost a year to the day that they’d moved in. This was the end of the 12 Bar. It occasionally returned under the guise of ’12 Bar Nights’ at Denmark Street’s basement venue known as The Alley Cat at 4 Denmark Street.
The Alley Cat
The Alley Cat grew out of the former basement music venue run by Peter Parker, but existed as a gig space for less than 10 years. Prior to that it was a Turkish Bar, which had opened after the Helter Skelter Book store closed. It was once famously the ‘goods-in’ entrance for the legendary Regent Sounds Recording Studios where in 1964 The Rolling Stones had recorded their debut LP at the street level studio, now Crispin Weir’s ‘Regent Sounds Guitar Shop’.
The Alley Cat were told by Consolidated Group that they would have to leave in the Autumn of 2015, but were actually served notice to quit on November 28th 2017 when the venue closed for good.
Demolition
The demolition of Denmark Place and Andrew Borde Street, situated to the rear of Denmark Street’s north side, saw the closure of Enterprise Studios. It was very much a rehearsal space of choice for Indy Rock Musicians. It hasn’t resurfaced. (The studio Leaseholder was also the owner of The 12 Bar Club).
Facing what is now the new exit to Tottenham Court Road Station was the ‘The Ballroom’ aka ‘SIN’. This Art Deco venue boasted an oak ballroom floor that was naturally sprung by horsehair. It dated back to the 1920’s. Compulsory Purchase Orders issued under The Crossrail Act of 2008 led to its demise. The Outernet’s Mall is currently being built to face the underground exit for Tottenham Court Road Station, situated by Charing Cross Road.
At the St Giles High Street end of Denmark Street was the former 1962 built pub The White Heart later rebranded as Cafe Munich before becoming The Intrepid Fox. The Intrepid Fox was a ‘Heavy Metal Music Bar’, which had started in Soho’s Wardour Street – now a burger outlet. Consolidated Group relinquished their stake in the freehold of The Intrepid Fox in St Giles High Street in a deal that saw some social housing replacing it; undertaken under the auspices of another developer.
Denmark Street Studios
Developments in Denmark Street also saw off the 1955 built former Tin Pan Alley Recording Studios at the basement of 21-22, where Jimi Hendrix had demoed his early output. It later became known as Denmark Street Studios. Recent times had seen Mumford & Son and Dizzy Rascal recording there. Affable studio owner Guy Katsav moved to D’Arblay Street where Denmark Street Studios continues to thrive.
What’s Left of Tin Pan Alley?
All of the ‘Indy Music Biz’ from above, below and behind Denmark Street has gone – bar one Luthier and The Classical Musical Instrument Shop both situated upstairs above Music Sales. Otherwise eight music retail businesses survive in vastly reduced space under a ‘Section 106 Deal’ struck with Camden Council’s Planning Department and Consolidated Group back in July 2015. A deal that took over four years to strike.
The Save Denmark Street Campaign was integral in influencing the content of the S106 deal, following on from numerous meetings with Councillors, Politicians and The Music Industry. Frances Wheet of Camden Council is witness to that fact as is Nigel Elderton, now Chairman of both PRS and Peer Music Group Europe, alongside singer-songwriter Phil Ryan – co-founder of The Big Issue and co-chair of The Save Denmark Street Campaign.
The Save Denmark St Campaign also brought in The Georgian Group in conjunction with Historic England and English Heritage to lobby for the saving and moving of the former 12 Bar Club’s stage. This was London’s oldest surviving Forge or “Smithy” , namely The 12 Bar’s ‘gig’ room. The Forge has since been lifted by crane, turned and reinstated to the rear of 26 Denmark Street, albeit in the wrong position!
The Campaign also lobbied successfully for 6 Denmark Street where Pink Floyd’s and Led Zeppelin’s album covers were designed. To the rear The Sex Pistols made their original demos when they lived in the outbuilding. Number 6 was awarded a Grade 2 Star listing on March 26th 2016 while 7 Denmark Street, which had seen it’s listed status reduced, was also awarded increased status to ‘Grade 2 Star’.
Outernet
The Outernet will see music return to beneath it in the shape of what the owners are claiming will be “three music venues split on three levels”. This came about in part after The Save Denmark St Campaign had pointed out that the original online website of former ‘designer’ Charcoal Blue (of December 2013) cited some spiel for-and-on-behalf of this building, referring to it not as a Music Venue, but as a ‘Multi Purpose Gallery’ for ‘Exhibition’, ‘Commercial Use’ and ‘Conferencing’. There was no mention of ‘Music’ or a ‘Music Venue’ whatsoever! Curiously, this page has since been removed from the Internet.
Health & Safety concerns delayed an eventual 2016 application for a ‘Music License’ vis-à-vis the ‘Event Gallery’ to be situated deep beneath Outernet. This omitted ‘music license application’ was very publicly pointed out by The Save Denmark Street Campaign. Now remedied.
Of course the landlord, the developer and the freeholder, maintain ‘music’ was always ‘very much a part of the plan’ for the regeneration of St Giles and Tin Pan Alley. Meanwhile, ‘Planning Amendment Applications’ to the area fly-in and out of Camden’s Planning Offices more regularly than aeroplanes out of London’s City Airport.
Cross ‘fail’
In August 2019 the London Evening Standard reported that the West End Section of Crossrail was ‘behind schedule’, amid vastly increasing costs, adding that it was unlikely to open this year or next. Meanwhile, the United Kingdom prepares to Brexit amid overlooked spiralling national debt with Prime minister Boris Johnson suggesting that HS2 might now be cancelled altogether, just as Parliament is about to be suspended for five weeks.
Henry Scott-Irvine
Save Denmark St Campaign
https://www.tinpanalleytales.co.uk/
Producer Director of the
9 Award Winning documentary ‘Tales From Tin Pan Alley’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YvZIBsz0CM&t=79s – Trailer 1
– Trailer 2 for Crystal Palace international Film Festival 2019 (where the TFTPA Documentary won ‘Best Documentary Feature”)
Citations …
Citation 1: https://www.westminster.gov.uk/Deputy-leader-receives-MBE Councillor Robert Davis’s very own CV states, he was “Instrumental in the creation of the forthcoming Nimax Theatre on Charing Cross Road”.
Citation 2: ‘The Councillor Robert Davis Scandal’ https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/oct/10/tory-westminster-councillor-resigns-after-hospitality-inquiry)
Citation 3: ‘Nica Burns’s Nimax Theatres to build first West End Theatre for 30 years’. https://www.londontheatredirect.com/news/nimax-to-build-first-new-west-end-theatre-for-30-years
Citation 4: Former GLA Mayor Ken Livingston’s alleged promise for a “larger live music venue” as an Astoria replacement (unfulfilled). Cited in NME https://www.nme.com/news/music/various-artists-4184-1315824
Citation 5: The Drift Report – January 2015. 12 Bar to Close. 12 Bar Club owner Carlo speaks. Go to 10 minutes and 44 seconds in the timeline https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWxx7P5YF94&t=45s
Its a shame to see places like the Borderline closing, but lets be fair.
Some of the traditional venues were pretty gruesome.
Yea, those of us that were there remember great nights at The Marquee, The 12 Bar , The Roxy and so many more clubs that have closed their doors.
But while we celebrate the past lets also recognise the future.
There are GREAT new venues opening in London.
They may not all be in or around Soho, but they are out there in our city where much of the fun has moved East.
2020 promises to see more live venue openings than we have seen in years – and they will totally change the gig-going experience.
The younger generation don’t want what we wanted.
Like every other business live music is changing fast.
I loved Borderline, but am truly excited by what comes next.
and our company is doing its bit to contribute.