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‘The most awkward building in England’? The ‘Rotten’ heritage of ‘Tin Pan Alley’ revisited

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 November 2016

Paul Graves-Brown
Affiliation:
Institute of Archaeology, University College London, 31–34 Gordon Square, London WC1H 0PY, UK
John Schofield*
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, University of York, King's Manor, York YO1 7EP, UK
*
*Author for correspondence (Email: john.schofield@york.ac.uk)

Abstract

How should we identify, protect and preserve contemporary heritage? Five years ago, comparisons in an Antiquity paper between the ‘simulations of scenes’ drawn on the wall of 6 Denmark Street by John Lydon, during Sex Pistols rehearsals in the 1970s, and the Palaeolithic cave art of Lascaux provoked a strong response. Less contentious was the recent listing of the building, bringing its punk artworks under statutory protection. In this follow-up to their earlier article, the authors review the initial reaction from the media, the public and the artist himself, and consider how attitudes may have shifted. They also offer a novel, ‘punk’-informed approach to the management of cultural heritage.

Type
Research
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd, 2016 

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