32 Burton Street — The Pogues' Flat

32 Burton Street was a short-life housing property in a terraced cul-de-sac in Bloomsbury. Jem Finer moved in during autumn 1978 through Short Life Community Housing. Shane MacGowan ended up in the room next to his. Spider Stacy arrived in 1979, moving in en masse with his band The Millwall Chainsaws. Shanne Bradley — who'd co-founded The Nips with MacGowan — also lived here, as did James Fearnley, who'd joined The Nips after auditioning. This was the flat where The Pogues came together.

Finer described how songs took shape at Burton Street: some were "pretty much fully formed," while others like "Boys from the County Hell" and "Dark Streets of London" required improvisation — he'd work out a part on guitar and eventually a melody would emerge. They needed an accordion player and went looking for a mythical female accordionist on the Hillview estate. They never found her, but they found Fearnley instead, located by following the sound of his typewriter through his Mornington Crescent flat.

Their first gig as Pogue Mahone was on 4 October 1982 at the Pindar of Wakefield (now The Water Rats) in King's Cross. Finer recalled: "It was five minutes down the road. We walked there, carrying our instruments." Their second gig, on 23 October, was at the 101 Club in Clapham, where Cáit O'Riordan joined on bass. By March 1983, Andrew Ranken had replaced John Hasler on drums, completing the classic Pogues lineup.

From Burton Street the band built a following across north London: the Hope and Anchor in Islington, the Bull and Gate in Kentish Town, the 100 Club on Oxford Street, the Sir George Robey in Finsbury Park, the Lady Owen Arms on Goswell Road, and Molly Malone's and the Auld Shillelagh in Stoke Newington. They were regulars at the weekly Haywire club night at the Pindar alongside the Shillelagh Sisters and Boothill Foot Tappers.

"Dark Streets of London" was recorded in January 1984 at Elephant Studios in Wapping. The initial pressing was 234 white labels, first sold at the Irish Centre in Camden Town on 16 March 1984. Finer's banjo was "deemed not to be of a suitable quality for recording" so a hired replacement was brought in, which he found difficult to play. Dave Robinson, founder of Stiff Records, turned up to a King's Cross gig where the band played three fast numbers before falling off the stage. He signed them, but told them they couldn't keep the name Pogue Mahone — "what about The Pogues?" The single was re-released, and the album Red Roses for Me followed.

Burton Street is a quiet residential road between Euston and Russell Square. The building is private — view from the street only.