The Daily Journalist.
An archaeologist who carried out detailed analysis of artwork daubed on the walls of a flat by the Sex Pistols’ Johnny Rotten today said he had “mixed feelings” after it was announced the building had been given listed status
Sex Pistols in Paradiso – Johnny Rotten (John Lydon, )
Denmark Street: London’s ‘Tin Pan Alley’
The decision was closely informed by research by Professor John Schofield, Head of Archaeology at the University of York and independent researcher Dr Paul Graves-Brown, who published their results in the international journal Antiquity in 2011, assessing the cultural significance of 6 Denmark Street and its artworks for the first time.
Professor John Schofield examines the artwork.
The listing is particularly significant as it takes place in the year of punk’s 40th anniversary.
Professor Schofield, said: “I think these artworks are highly significant, but that view and the Grade II* listing will of course divide opinion – the Sex Pistols are and will always be controversial.
“I have mixed feelings about the listing to be honest. It is good to have this designation off the coattails of our own research, and to see such an alternative and counter-cultural place given this national recognition.
“But it is also a rather odd contradiction, for a building so closely associated with the Sex Pistols and their rallying cry ‘No Future’ to be preserved for the benefit of future generations.
12 Bar Club farewell party at Denmark Street, London, Date 11 January 2015
“Punk helped change the world, and it did so with genuine anger, but also with passion, compassion and humour. Maybe there is a lesson there for our times. Denmark Street was where it all started.”
Campaigners had argued that the building, where the pioneering punk band lived, rehearsed and made demo recordings for their first album, and which gave birth to the worldwide punk rock phenomenon, was important to the nation’s musical heritage.
12 Bar Club Farewell party at Denmark Street, London, Date 11 January 2015,
