London's Tin Pan Alley to get £142m overhaul

London’s world-famous Denmark Street, known as ‘Tin Pan Alley’ and home to music shops that sold instruments to guitar legends including Jimi Hendrix, is to get a multi-million pound makeover.

Skanska is to build the St Giles Circus scheme in the West End of the capital for Consolidated Developments in a deal worth £142m.

The project, due for completion in early 2020, will combine retail, leisure and entertainment spaces, commercial offices and residential accommodation across four new buildings and a number of existing buildings.

Foundations for the largest of the new buildings will straddle the Crossrail tunnel, which runs into nearby Tottenham Court Road station, above which the team will construct an underground ‘box within a box’ to contain an auditorium.

In a later phase of the development, grade II-listed properties and shops on Denmark Place, St Giles High Street and the north side of Denmark Street – home to the famous guitar emporium Macari’s – will see their premises “updated”, with offices and residential accommodation built into upper levels, according to Skanska.

Steve Holbrook, Skanska’s managing director, said: “We’ve worked hard with local businesses and organisations like Historic England to ensure the character of the area is retained and continues to serve music lovers into the future, through both its new and existing buildings.

“It’s great to be part of a scheme that is bringing a major performance venue back to the area,” he added.