London is a city with diverse musical tastes and entertainment venues. A rich landscape has evolved through the West End, Soho, and to the far corners of the Boroughs. Its music ringing out from the churches, schools, theatres, music halls, public houses, and spilling on to the streets into carnival displays, festivals and other jubilant celebrations across the centuries.
The city has been either a temporary or permanent home to many notable classical composers including Mozart. One such address of the composer in 1764-5 was, Five Fields Row now known as 180 Ebury Street, Belgravia (see record 33538 and 134495). Handel, and famously Jimi Hendrix's residence, was at 25 Brook Street, Mayfair (142259). Look out for Hogarth's print from a Rake's Progress (25244) which represents Handel seated at the piano. Handel composed with specific performers in mind, such as Susannah Cibber (291955) who took part in the première of the Messiah in 1742.
Images of other famous musical addresses can be searched for here including, 6-7 Denmark Street (70644) and (70645) which was a base for the Sex Pistols in the mid-1970s and is now a Grade II Listed Building (70661). At 34 Montagu Square (103438) John Lennon and Yoko rented the flat and the interior appeared on the cover of their Two Virgins album.
The header image (300460) from the Chris Schwarz collection shows Debbie Bishop and Rough Edge at the Crossfields Music Festival in 1979. The gallery also features the reggae band, Matumbi (image 294722), at the Albany Empire in Deptford for Rock Against Racism. These concerts took place between 1976 to 1982. Matumbi were formed in Brockley, South London in 1971 by Dennis Bovell (seen here on the right) and were initially signed by the Trojan record label. They did the first RAR gig at the Princess Alice pub (Commercial Street, Stepney) in 1976. The Albany held fifteen RAR gigs and the three-day All Together Now Festival in 1978.
Women composers are not well documented in the canon of music history and did not have the same opportunities or encouragement as their male counterparts in this industry. They are more likely to have been remembered as performers rather than creators of music. Women often adopted male pseudonyms to get their work published. How much of the work of 'Anon' written on scores are the work of women we might ask? Clara Wieck, better known as Clara Schumann, has been overshadowed by her husband's career but was herself a composer and successful pianist who performed in London at St James's Hall which opened in 1858 (313645).
Edith Swepstone was a Stepney-born composer (4 January 1862 - 5 February 1942) who studied at the Guildhall School of Music (200336) which was on John Carpenter Street at this time before its move to the Barbican site in 1977. Swepstone lectured on music at the City of London School. Her music was performed at the South Place Sunday Concerts (6150).
Music can be a unifying language. Ethel Smyth, creator of the women's suffrage anthem, March of the Women, 1911 was born at 5 Lower Seymour Street (now Wigmore Street). A year before her opera, The Wreckers was performed at Covent Garden (20185). This was purported to be the most important English opera composed during the period between Purcell and Britten.
The streets and landmarks of London have been a muse and inspiration to many: immortalised in the titles of popular songs like Waterloo Sunset, West End Girls, Electric Avenue, and in the more traditional songs such as The Lambeth Walk and A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square. There are plenty of musical ghosts hiding in the fabric of London if you seek them out.
Explore more relating to our holdings on music in London and Middlesex at:
https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/things-to-do/london-metropolitan-archives/news-events/Pages/music-in-the-archives.aspx