Konk Studio — The Kinks, Hornsey, London

Konk Studios at 84 Tottenham Lane in Hornsey, North London, was built by Ray Davies in 1973 as the Kinks' own creative home and has remained an independent recording studio ever since. Davies used Konk to record some of the Kinks' finest later work — Preservation Acts 1 and 2, Soap Opera, Schoolboys in Disgrace — and the studio has since hosted sessions for the Blur, Morrissey, Blur, Supergrass, Paloma Faith, and many others. The studio was built with the philosophy of creating a self-contained space where artists could work without commercial pressure, reflecting Davies's persistent English eccentricity and independence.

The Kinks were formed in Muswell Hill, just up the road from Hornsey, in 1963, and Ray Davies's writing always kept faith with North London's specific character — its working-class terraces, its pubs, its particular English melancholy. Songs like 'Waterloo Sunset,' 'Sunny Afternoon,' 'Village Green Preservation Society,' and 'Lola' are among the greatest works in British pop, and Davies's ability to observe English life with affection and irony made the Kinks a band apart from their Sixties peers.

Konk Studios is still an active commercial recording facility and is not open to public tours. The building is a converted Victorian property on a residential street in Hornsey. The surrounding neighbourhood of Muswell Hill and Hornsey is quintessential North London — prosperous, leafy, and full of the Edwardian architecture that haunts Davies's songwriting.