The Railway Hotel, Wealdstone — where The Who debuted

In 1964, Pete Meaden — the sharp mod tastemaker who briefly managed The Who — secured the band a Tuesday night residency at the Railway Hotel in Wealdstone, Harrow. Billed as The High Numbers, they played to local mods week after week, and this pub became the incubator for the band's explosive mod identity. Townshend, Daltrey, Entwistle and Moon were still teenagers.

The mod scene the Railway Hotel plugged into was fiercely tribal — sharp suits, scooters, pills, and a taste for American R&B. Meaden tried to reposition the band as the authentic voice of mod youth, even releasing a mod-themed single as The High Numbers. The residency didn't make them stars, but it honed them into something dangerous. Film-maker Kit Lambert saw them play here and became their manager, transforming them back into The Who.

The Railway Hotel has since been converted. The exterior remains recognisable. The pub is far less celebrated than the Marquee or the Cavern, but for Who historians it was the proving ground — the room where four young men from West London figured out that volume and aggression could be a kind of art.