12 Bar founder Andy Preston with business partner Carlo Mattiucci

WARNINGS over the future of Tin Pan Alley, a street once hailed as the centre of the British music industry, have been raised by long-standing businesses who say a £1billion redevelopment has forced music shops to close and wrecked its unique atmosphere.

The managers of Regent Sounds Studios, a guitar shop and music facility founded in 1951, and where globally feted acts such as The Rolling Stones and Jimi Hendrix cut albums, have become embroiled in a row with their landlord over what they say are broken promises.

They say a studio integral to their business has been sitting empty since redevelopment works in the area began and they are being denied their legal right to reopen the recording space.

Developer Consolidated signed an agreement in 2015 that said every music shop in the stretch would have the right to return once its work redeveloping the street and the sites behind the façades of many of the shops was finished. And at an affordable rent.

But a number of firms told the Extra that construction delays had led to successful businesses shutting, while others say there has been no offer to return made.

Camden Council has confirmed that it is investigating whether the planning deal struck when the scheme was given the green light has been followed as agreed.

Consolidated firmly deny the claims, and say they have improved the prospects for Tin Pan Alley, Denmark Street, by increased footfall, making space for three new music venues and making a large investment in music-related businesses.

Regent Sounds Studios manager Crispin Weir (pictured inset) said they had been promised their studio would be returned to them and it was vital for running a successful business. Mr Weir said: “We knew the development was coming, and it was like the Sword of Damocles hanging over all of us. When the development started, they said they would take half of our premises for six months. Then it was a year – and then it went on and on.

Regent Sounds Studios manager Crispin Weir

“It has been five-and-a-half years now. We do not under­stand why it is empty. All we want is the space back, as we were promised.”

He added: “It is very difficult to keep going when we are stuck in a shoe box.”

Others say cornerstone attractions have closed.

12 Bar venue founder Andy Preston, who also ran Andy’s Guitars, said they have had no offer to reopen.

Consolidated deny this, stating they offered the 12 Bar a lease but they did not take it up.

Separately Mr Preston has chased Consolidated through the UK courts to stop them using his 12 Bar name for the new venue.

His business partner, Carlo Mattiucci, said he was invited to see a new venue in 2020 on the site of the 12 Bar, but it wasn’t to show him his new premises.

He said: “They offered me a job working for them, but that wasn’t what they had agreed to. They said there was no way they would let us return; but it is there, in the legal agreement, that we must have that right.”

A spokesman for Consolidated said it had protected the street’s musical history and was building on it.

They said: “Regent Sounds is a great shop and since 2018 we have supported them with a discounted rent below the market rate and covered all costs of refurbishing the building at around £200k which they would have been due to pay under the service charge. We’ve complied with all section 106 obliga­tions and have offered them equivalent-sized floor areas in the building as they had previously. All tenants have been offered the right to return in accord­ance with the Denmark Street Retail Plan.”

They added that they were legally bound by leases to ensure that every shop that was related to the music industry would remain so, and pointed to new offerings including a 2,000-capacity venue, two smaller gig spaces, and a free-to-use recording studio set to open later this year.

New arrivals include keyboard special­ists Roland, with two major music firms set to follow.

But for those trading – and with around half of the premises yet to reopen in any guise – this rosy view clashes with their experience. Mr Weir said: “They have a very different view of what they want to do, compared to the people who have made Den­mark Street what it is.”