The beat goes on: could Tin Pan Alley’s slick revamp be the demo version for global cities?

For over a century Denmark Street has been regarded as the Savile Row of music, helping forge the careers of countless musicians from Vera Lynn to the Rolling Stones and David Bowie. Tin Pan Alley, as it’s known, and its surrounds are currently undergoing a major revamp, due to complete this year following some local opposition.

Sitting incongruously at the centre of the building site at St Giles Circus — where Oxford Street meets Charing Cross Road — is the graffiti-daubed “12 Bar”. The 300-year-old building was an early blacksmiths and, during its life as a venue, helped spur the careers of singers Adele and Jeff Buckley.

The listed building had to be lifted by a specialist crane in a steel frame to dig below, then put back onto its original site with a new basement. “It’s engineering porn, the move has been pored over online,” says Ben Maher, commercial boss of Outernet Global, which will run the site, as we adjust our hard hats on a site tour.

The sprawling scheme will feature 50 high-end apartments, offices, a boutique hotel and a restaurant. So far, so London 2.0. But there will also be a 2,000-capacity subterranean music venue, the largest to open in central London since the Forties, a stone’s throw from the former site of the Astoria, which shut in 2009 to make way for Crossrail.

There are also busking points; a walk through rock’n’roll gallery; a retail space for product launches; a room in the hotel with the original graffiti from when the Sex Pistols lived there; and a pro bono recording studio.

It’s an ambitious project, the result of 14 years work and 116 acquisitions by property developer Laurence Kirschel and his company Consolidated Developments. Low-profile Kirschel, worth £339 million according to the Sunday Times, has spent three decades working on West End properties including turning a car park into The Soho Hotel.

The former Ronnie Scotts owner has not got late peer Paul Raymond’s flair but has similar influence on the area. Opposite the Outernet, developer Derwent London is busily building a huge site which will feature offices and a theatre. Neighbouring Centre Point’s revamp was completed last year.

Kirschel has formed a media company for the project: Outernet Global. The fledgling venture hopes to create a blueprint here that can be replicated in cities worldwide. New York, Los Angeles, Berlin and Dubai are on the hitlist for the company, which owns the freehold of the London site and is debt financed by US private equity giant Blackstone.

Outernet is fronted by chief executive Philip Bourchier O’Ferrall, a media industry veteran who’s worked on MTV and Channel 5 while at Viacom and has relationships with brands.

The standout element of the London work is a semi-open cube containing the world’s largest LED screen, which will greet travellers exiting Tottenham Court Road station (think Piccadilly Circus but more immersive). The advertising will change with commuter-friendly ads in the morning, tourist-targeted content later and something for Soho dwellers until 1am. Bourchier O’Ferrall hopes to link up activities happening around the site. Artists playing the venue will likely play in the venues, for example. He says: “The ads will be much more subtle than a TV or digital ad. A great day might see an emerging artist play on Denmark Street, someone recording in the studio then that’s shown on the big screen.”

Not everyone shares Bourchier O’Ferrall’s gleaming commercial vision for the future of an area associated with gritty authenticity. A 2015 grassroots campaign to “Save Tin Pan Alley” garnered some initial support, including from The Who’s Pete Townshend. Squatters even camped out in the 12 Bar, angry at its closure (it will now be relaunched under an as-yet undecided new name). It echoed similar efforts by the likes of actor Stephen Fry to preserve Soho’s character.

Denmark Street’s evolution is fascinating. The 18th century slum and stomping ground of beggars and prostitutes became a metalwork hub before music shops began opening, earning it the name Tin Pan Alley, the same as a similar area in New York. In the Fifties music publishers began moving in, replaced by stores and studios in Sixties. It gained a reputation as a place to quickly record demo tracks, roping in the hive of local session musicians. Among those to have recorded on the street are David Bowie, The Kinks and Elton John.

After years of disruption, retailers on Denmark Street appear weary but cautiously optimistic. The campaign led the public to think the entire street had been bulldozed, not just the backs of the buildings. They also complain the works have killed the nightlife on the street, emboldening local drug users to inhabit it. But by day it remains busy, with musicians (Noel Gallagher is a regular) and tourists alike visiting. The frontages of many of the buildings have already been polished up, looking slicker and more uniform.

“It has dragged on and overrun and there’s been several changes to the original plan,” says Crispin Weir over the sound of drilling. He runs Regent Sounds, arguably the most historic site on the street. The Rolling Stones recorded demos there and Elton John popped in for sessions during his first job as a teaboy for a music publisher. It’s been a shop since 2004, but was cut to a quarter of the size while the works have been going on.

“We always knew this was going to happen but the impact on the business has been absolutely dramatic, it’s very nearly finished us on a number of occasions. We’ve come so close to going under it’s not even funny. I’m pleased to say we’ve turned a major corner this Christmas so we’ve back on an even keel,” says Weir, who plans to add a small museum in the shop when the work has been finished.

The street’s retailers generally believe that Kirschel’s Consolidated have been fairer than most West End landlords, and understand the importance of its music.

Paul Waller, store manager at acoustic guitar specialist Westside MI, says: “They could have put the usual suspects in a long time ago. There’s a Pret on the corner which could have easily been in the street.” Of the building works — which have seen Westside relocated along the street — he says: “We have tolerated it for the long game. We still want to be for instruments what Hatton Garden is for jewellery.”

Monetising rock’n’roll can be awkward though — will it just offer a smooth Hard Rock café type experience? “There’s no doubt in my mind that it’ll be all shiny and new, a Carnaby Street-style development, but given the option I would rather that than no option,” says Weir. ”We have to appeal to the serious musician, the tourist and the people attracted to the place’s history.” Weir hopes that the huge new venue will feature credible musicians as well as pop stars and product launches.

It’s a point Bourchier O’Ferrall is keen to stress. “The whole lifeblood of the project is preserving the heritage of music and entertainment at the heart of Denmark Street. A traditional property developer would focus on turning it into the most simple shopping or restaurant focussed street, taking any sort of retailer who may like to open, just like much of the gentrified Soho we see today.” The leases also contain clauses that mean only music-related tenants can replace a shop if they decide to leave Denmark Street and sell their lease.