Sex Pistols This article is more than 7 years oldNot pretty, not vacant: Sex Pistols' London home given listed status
This article is more than 7 years oldHouse where band lived in 70s is decorated with graffiti drawn by John Lydon, and has been awarded second highest form of listing
Punks may have been the sworn enemies of government and all its institutions but that is not stopping the heritage body Historic England bestowing on them a rare privilege.
It has announced Grade II* listing status for two 17th-century townhouses in Denmark Street, London, one of which was a base for the Sex Pistols in the mid-1970s.
The outbuilding of 6 Denmark Street also still has fascinating traces of the Pistols in the form of unflattering caricatures and graffiti made by John Lydon, cheery reflections such as: ”DEPRESSED MISERABLE TIRED ILL SICK BOOED & BORED.”
He also drew his bandmates and manager, Malcolm McLaren, who is given the title Muggeridge, after Malcolm Muggeridge, and is shown with a fistful of cash.
The drawings, too, get extra protection as 6 and 7 Denmark Street are upgraded by the government from Grade II to Grade II*, the second highest category that only 5.5% of listed buildings are in.
The action may be freighted with irony but Posy Metz, the listings adviser who assessed the buildings, said she did not see a conflict between the Pistols’ anti-establishment stance and listing.
“The purpose of listing is to flag things which are of historical and cultural importance and I think punk is a really important part of our cultural history and including it in the listing is a way of recognising that.
“The alternative is saying: let’s forget all about punk because they don’t want to be remembered as part of our history.”
She said it was important that people who did not live through the punk era should be aware of it as an important cultural phenomenon.
“Punk can teach us a lot in our modern lives in terms of freedom of expression and not conforming ... it is really important these things are understood and valued.”
Metz also stressed that, while important, it was not the main reason for the listing. That was the remarkably well preserved architectural detail, fittings and character of the two buildings, she said. “Punk was not the clincher but it certainly adds a layer of interest.”
The buildings are two of eight original buildings, dating from 1686 to 1691, to survive on the street.
They would have been built for the middle classes but during the 18th and 19th century the area became a notorious slum, which may, in heritage terms, have been a good thing in that there were no wealthy owners updating and upgrading them.
By the 19th century the houses began to be used commercially with shops and, in the outhouses, metal-working businesses.
In the 20th century, music publishers began moving in – Melody Maker was founded there in 1926 – and by the 1960s and 70s Denmark Street was at the heart of the British music industry.
Denmark Street, nicknamed Tin Pan Alley, has many musical claims to fame. It was where the Rolling stones recorded their first album; where David Bowie camped in a converted ambulance hoping to meet the right people; and where Elton John, on a roof, wrote Your Song.
And, crucially, between 1975-77 it was where Malcolm McLaren took a lease on the outbuilding of No 6, the downstairs used as a studio and the upstairs, for a time, as somewhere for Steve Jones and Glen Matlock to live.
The listing is announced in the 40th anniversary year of punk with a number of events and exhibitions organised under the umbrella of Punk London. The celebrations have horrified the son of McLaren, Joe Corrée, who last week vowed to burn his collection of punk memorabilia, worth an estimated £5m, on 26 November to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the release of Anarchy in the UK.
He said punk had been appropriated by the mainstream. “Rather than a movement for change, punk has become like a fucking museum piece or a tribute act.”
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