Historic Regent Sounds in London’s Tin Pan Alley, Used by Jimi Hendrix, The Rolling Stones, David Bowie and Others to Reopen

“Regent Sounds Studio” by Michael Lazarev is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

The historic Regent Sounds Studio, a London institution that has hosted the likes of Jimi Hendrix, The Rolling Stones, The Kinks, David Bowie, and other seminal acts, has reopened its doors at the original Tin Pan Alley site on Denmark Street in London. The shop is now open to the public after a prolonged closure, with the eagerly awaited reopening of the studio component on the horizon. 

Changes are coming after inventor Patrick Racz made a multi-million-dollar investment to fix the space and bring its purpose back to center. The original features of the recording space, including walls, floor tiles, and the recording equipment, have been meticulously preserved to maintain the space’s historical integrity, which includes housing the sessions that resulted in The Beatles’ “Fixing a Hole,” from Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

The recording studio also housed The Rolling Stones during their “Not Fade Away” tracking, and was the interior used for The Kinks’ 1964 demo of “You Really Got Me Going,” in addition to Hendrix’s choice room when rehearsing and recording “Stone Free/Up From The Skies,” in October 1967. 

To match the excitement of the shop’s reopening, an archive of memorabilia has been unearthed. This collection, which includes T-Bone Walker’s 1949 Gibson guitar, the instrument that started it all and inspired the likes of Chuck Berry, B.B. King, and Keith Richards, will be on display. The move comes after an investment of nearly $8 million was made, allowing the studio to reopen within approximately a year.