Charlie Watts Childhood — Islington, London

Charlie Watts was born on June 2, 1941, and grew up in Islington in north London, before the area's gentrification gave it its current character. He studied at Harrow Art School and worked as a graphic designer while playing drums in London jazz clubs — jazz was always his first love, and his spare, behind-the-beat style owed more to Jo Jones and Kenny Clarke than to any rock drummer. He joined the Rolling Stones in January 1963, reportedly reluctantly, and stayed for fifty-eight years until his death in August 2021.

Watts's drumming was the often-invisible foundation of the Stones' sound — he never played what a rock drummer would conventionally play, instead approaching each song as a jazz musician would, creating space and pulling slightly back from the beat in a way that gave the Stones their unmistakable feel. Keith Richards has said that without Watts there is no Rolling Stones. His sobriety, his quiet dignity, his love of jazz and sharp suits, and his steadfast devotion to his wife Shirley — married 1964, inseparable until his death — made him the Stones' moral centre.

Islington has no formal Charlie Watts landmark. He spent much of his adult life in the Devon and London countryside and maintained a jazz orchestra for years as a side project. He died on August 24, 2021, at the age of 80. The Rolling Stones dedicated their subsequent Sixty tour to him and continue to perform with drummer Steve Jordan.