Stratford · Manor Park · Canning Town · 1976

Iron Maiden

A singer and a bass player side by side under stage lights, in black and white — Paul Di’Anno and Steve Harris on stage at the Manchester Apollo, 1980. Harry (Howard) Potts · CC BY-SA 2.0

A bass player in front of a drum riser half hidden in low white fog — Dry ice rolling across the stage behind Steve Harris, Manchester Apollo, 1980. Harry Potts · CC BY 2.0

Three guitarists in a row under a rig of lamps, in black and white — Steve Harris, Adrian Smith and Dave Murray at the Manchester Apollo, 30 November 1980. Harry Potts · CC BY 2.0

An East End pub band that spent a tenner a night on fog. Pour the dry ice.

East London · 1976–80

Three pubs,
and a tenner on fog.

The band’s diary of early gig fees, shown in the Early Days documentary, runs from £10 to £15 to £17.50 a night. All the while they paid a tenner a show for dry ice.

A green-tiled corner pub with gold signwriting — The Cart and Horses on the corner of Maryland Point, Stratford, 2023. Ewan-M · CC BY-SA 4.0

A gabled, half-timbered brick pub on a street corner — The Ruskin Arms, High Street North, Manor Park, 2010. Ewan-M · CC BY-SA 2.0

A tidal creek with new towers along the far bank — Bow Creek at Canning Town, 2025: the Bridge House stood on its banks by the A13. Jim Osley · CC BY-SA 2.0

The fee diary

First fee£10—

Then£15—

Then£17.50—

Three fees from the diary. Pour the dry ice for each night.

The diary as reported does not say which pub paid which fee.

Sources

1 Maryland Point, Stratford, London E15

The Cart and Horses

Iron Maiden first played here in 1976 and played it many times that year. By 1977 people queued down the street, and some were turned away. Their last gig here was in April 1978.

The pub has stood on the corner of Maryland Point and Leytonstone Road since 1805; the building was rebuilt in 1882. The basement stage holds about 120 people, and the walls upstairs are covered in Maiden memorabilia.

A working pub with live music in its basement. The British Lion nights in December 2026 are sold out.

Sources

386 High Street North, Manor Park, London E12

The Ruskin Arms

CAMRA describes it as a former Bass Charrington pub, once a rock pub to which the Small Faces and Iron Maiden both trace their roots.

The band’s Early Days DVD includes a home video of Iron Maiden playing the Ruskin Arms in 1980. It is three storeys of gables, timber framing and oriel windows.

The pub closed on 4 November 2018 and has been closed long term since October 2019; planning for a 22-bedroom side extension was granted in 2020.

Closed. See the building from High Street North; do not try to go in.

Sources

Bow Creek, Canning Town, London E16 (the pub is gone)

The Bridge House

Murphy wrote that Iron Maiden were a good band with a well-behaved crowd, and he would book them again. They went on to play there more than 40 times.

The Bridge House sat on the banks of Bow Creek: the first pub you reached coming into Newham on the A13. Terry Murphy, a former boxer, took it over in 1975; it was a music venue until 1982. It claimed to be the first pub in the world with its own record label.

The pub is long gone, mostly replaced by the widened Canning Town flyover and its roads.

Nothing survives. Canning Town station stands by Bow Creek and the flyover, where the pub was.

Sources

Kingsbury and Camden · 1978–79

A cassette,
played the next night.

An empty Underground platform with a Way Out sign, in muted colour — Kingsbury station in March 1981, the Soundhouse years. Stephen McKay · CC BY-SA 2.0

A suburban Underground platform with a train standing — Kingsbury station, 2014, a short walk from Kingsbury Circle. Dr Neil Clifton · CC BY-SA 2.0

Prince of Wales, Kingsbury Circle, London NW9 (demolished)

From 1975 the DJ Neal Kay built up a heavy metal disco in the Prince of Wales pub at Kingsbury. It was called the Bandwagon; he renamed it the Heavy Metal Soundhouse.

Iron Maiden recorded a four-song demo at Spaceward Studios in Cambridge on 30 and 31 December 1978, because no one else wanted New Year’s Eve and it was all they could afford.

Early in January 1979 a young man pressed the cassette into Kay’s hands. Kay played it at the Soundhouse the next night. Prowler went to number one on the Soundhouse chart that Kay compiled each week from requests for the paper Sounds.

Steve Harris and Paul Di’Anno went down one night to see what happened when it was played, and the room went berserk.

The band put the demo out themselves in November 1979, without one of the four songs, as The Soundhouse Tapes, named after the club. Only 5,000 were pressed. The Prince of Wales closed around 2004 and was demolished in 2007.

The pub is gone. Kingsbury Circle is the junction; Kingsbury station on the Jubilee line is a short walk west.

Sources

A domed white theatre front on a street corner — KOKO, once the Music Machine, Camden High Street, 2026. APK · CC BY 4.0

1A Camden High Street, Camden, London NW1

The Music Machine

Neal Kay began putting on a weekly night here. On 8 May 1979 he booked Samson, Iron Maiden and Angel Witch to open a tour he called the Heavy Metal Crusade.

The building opened as the Camden Theatre in 1901 and became the Music Machine in 1977. It became the Camden Palace in 1982 and KOKO later; after a long restoration it reopened on 28 April 2022.

A working venue again; tickets through its own listings.

Sources

Highbury New Park · 1979–80

A portfolio,
and a word.

Say “head” the way they said it.

Before any painting, the band’s Eddie was a papier-mâché mask made by a friend of their lighting man. They named it Eddie because, in their London accents, “Ed” and “head” sounded the same.

Sources

Riggs, living in Finsbury Park, had painted a punk-haired corpse in a T-shirt against a wall he found on a night walk, lit yellow by street lamps and blue by the moon. He called it Electric Matthew Says Hello.

His agent kept it a few weeks and handed it back as not commercial. It stayed in his portfolio until Rod Smallwood asked to see it. Derek Riggs remembered going down to Wessex Recording Studios to show his portfolio, and finding the band all there making a lot of noise.

Built in 1881 as a hall for St Augustine’s Church next door, it became a recording studio in the 1960s. The Clash made London Calling there and the Sex Pistols Never Mind the Bollocks. The studio closed in 2003 and the building was sold to a developer.

People live here now. Walk Highbury New Park if you like, and leave the residents in peace. Pictured: the street, not the building.

Sources

A leafy residential street junction — Highbury New Park at Highbury Grove, 2014: the street, not the building. David Howard · CC BY-SA 2.0

129 Kingsway, Holborn · 1979–80

Thirteen days
in a basement.

A wide London street of stone office blocks by an Underground entrance — Kingsway by Holborn station, 2008; number 129 is across the road. David Howard · CC BY-SA 2.0

In early 1980 they went into London’s Kingsway Studios to make their first album. Steve Harris says it took 13 days, because they had been playing the songs on stage for three or four years.

Dave Murray remembers the amps, the cabinets and the headphones, and thinking: this is the big time.

Rod Smallwood first saw the band in mid-July 1979, signed them to EMI on 15 December 1979, and they cut their first single just before Christmas. Iron Maiden came out in the UK on 14 April 1980. Rod Smallwood says it went into the UK chart at number four.

The studio was in the basement of 129 Kingsway, an office block opposite Holborn station built in 1958, with a studio running from 1959. De Lane Lea ran it from 1965; later Martin Birch and Ian Gillan of Deep Purple reopened it. The site is now a modern office block with a Boots.

Nothing to visit inside. Stand on Kingsway by Holborn station and look across the road.

Sources

A hand-painted red sign on a lawn under palm trees — The studio’s sign at Compass Point, Nassau, 2014. Christine Puccio from Oakland · CC BY-SA 2.0

Compass Point, Nassau · 1983–2010

Out of the fog,
onto an island.

After six weeks writing in a hotel on Jersey from 2 January 1983, the band flew to Nassau to make Piece of Mind there with Martin Birch.

Chris Blackwell, who founded Island Records, opened Compass Point in Nassau in 1977. They came back for Powerslave and Somewhere in Time, and in 2010 for The Final Frontier, produced by Kevin Shirley. Kevin Shirley’s diary calls the studio basically one big room.

Steve Harris later moved his family to the island. In 2023 the complex of studios and cottages was slated for demolition to make way for housing.

Private land with no visits, and slated for demolition. There is no public way in.

Sources

A long-haired singer at a microphone in orange stage light — Bruce Dickinson at the Anoeta velodrome, San Sebastián, 4 April 1982. Fernando Catalina Landa · CC BY 2.0

Compass Point Beach Resort

Compass Point Beach Resort, Nassau

West Bay Street, Nassau, New Providence · Book direct

A beach resort on West Bay Street that shares the Compass Point name. The old studio is private and closed to visitors. Pictured: the studio sign, 2014.

Check rooms

Hammersmith, October 1984 · Long Beach, March 1985

One live album,
two cities.

Side four: The Hammersmith Odeon. The final side of Live After Death was recorded over four nights here in October 1984.

An Art Deco theatre front on a corner under a grey sky — The Hammersmith Odeon, now the Eventim Apollo, 2025. Matt Brown · CC BY 4.0

Eventim Apollo, 45 Queen Caroline Street, Hammersmith, London W6

The Hammersmith Odeon

It opened on 28 March 1932 as the Gaumont Palace cinema and was renamed the Hammersmith Odeon in 1962. It is now the Eventim Apollo.

Royal Mail’s 2023 Iron Maiden stamps include Bruce Dickinson on this stage in May 1983.

Both the Hammersmith and the Long Beach nights were part of the World Slavery Tour for Powerslave: 187 concerts in 331 days, starting in Poland.

A working venue; book through its own listings.

Sources

A round arena painted with a huge ocean mural of whales — Long Beach Arena under its whale mural, 2007. mark6mauno · CC BY-SA 2.0

Long Beach Convention Center, 300 East Ocean Boulevard, Long Beach, California

Long Beach Arena

Live After Death was recorded mostly over four nights at Long Beach Arena in March 1985.

The arena opened in 1962, the first building of the convention centre.

Wyland’s whale mural round its outside wall, Planet Ocean, was dedicated on 9 July 1992.

In 2013 the arena was turned into the Pacific Ballroom.

Part of the convention centre. Walk round the outside to see the whale mural.

Sources

Novotel London West

Novotel London West, Hammersmith

1 Shortlands, Hammersmith, London W6 8DR · Book direct

A 630-room hotel on Shortlands in Hammersmith, near the old Odeon. Pictured: the Eventim Apollo.

Check rooms

An aerial view of a huge festival field and stage in sepia — The first Cidade do Rock from the air on the festival’s last day, 20 January 1985 (Blitz on stage). Sérgio Valle Duarte · CC BY 3.0

Jacarepaguá, Rio de Janeiro · 11 January 1985

The first night
of the first Rock in Rio.

Rock in Rio opened on 11 January 1985 and Iron Maiden played the first night: their first show in Brazil.

Rod Smallwood says they played before Queen, to a crowd reported at 300,000 and maybe more, shown live on television across South America.

The first Cidade do Rock was built on a plot of 250,000 square metres in Jacarepaguá. Over ten days 1,380,000 people came. Bruce Dickinson later thanked the festival’s creator, Roberto Medina, for launching his band in Latin America.

The 1985 ground is not kept as a site. Rock in Rio still runs in the city.

Sources

A singer and a bass player in red stage light — Bruce Dickinson and Steve Harris, San Sebastián, 4 April 1982. Fernando Catalina Landa · CC BY 2.0

Ed Force One · 2008 and 2016

The singer
flies the plane.

Before start · 2008

Before start. Call each item; the captain answers.

Sources

A white airliner with the band name on its fuselage, parked on an apron — The band’s Boeing 757 on the apron, 27 April 2008. Kuba Bożanowski from Warsaw, Poland · CC BY 2.0

On 18 February 2016 a new and much bigger Ed Force One landed at Cardiff. That Friday it took off from Cardiff Airport for the tour; local news was waiting in Fort Lauderdale.

A four-engined jumbo jet on approach against cloud — The 2016 Ed Force One, a Boeing 747, arriving at Toronto, 2 April 2016. BriYYZ from Toronto, Canada · CC BY-SA 2.0

An airport terminal forecourt with a zebra crossing — Cardiff Airport terminal, 2019. Lewis Clarke · CC BY-SA 2.0

Rhoose, Vale of Glamorgan, Wales

A working airport west of Cardiff. Watch from public areas only.

Sources

Suresnes, west of Paris · 2019

The same sofa,
the same piano.

Dickinson says nothing had changed: the same sofa, the same piano, the same wood.

The studio is a 1930s cinema. Bruce Dickinson says the stage is small but the room is big, which makes the drums sound huge. Senjutsu was the third Maiden album made there, after Brave New World and The Book of Souls. They recorded it in early 2019, in a break in the Legacy tour; Steve Harris says the old cinema’s high ceiling gives a great sound.

A working studio. See the old cinema front from the street.

Sources

A tall cream former cinema with a curved entrance — Studio Guillaume Tell, a 1930s cinema in Suresnes, 2018. Celette · CC BY-SA 4.0

Two guitarists side by side in amber light — Dave Murray and Adrian Smith, San Sebastián, 4 April 1982. Fernando Catalina Landa · CC BY 2.0

Where it is now

Last orders,
10 places.

Stratford, Manor Park, Canning Town, Kingsbury, Camden, Holborn and Hammersmith are all in London. Long Beach is its own city in Los Angeles County; Suresnes is just west of Paris.

Where it is now

10 places you can visit. Wessex Studios on Highbury New Park is homes now, Compass Point is private, and the 1985 Rio ground is not kept: they are named here and not mapped.

Pins mark public places; private homes are named but not pinned.

General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A working pub with live music in its basement. The British Lion nights in December 2026 are sold out.
General reference · Restricted access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Closed. See the building from High Street North; do not try to go in.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: area · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Nothing survives. Canning Town station stands by Bow Creek and the flyover, where the pub was.

The Cart and Horses on the corner of Maryland Point, Stratford, 2023. Ewan-M · CC BY-SA 4.0
1 Maryland Point, Stratford, London E15
The Cart and Horses
The pub has stood on the corner of Maryland Point and Leytonstone Road since 1805; the building was rebuilt in 1882.
A working pub with live music in its basement. The British Lion nights in December 2026 are sold out.
Sources
The Ruskin Arms, High Street North, Manor Park, 2010. Ewan-M · CC BY-SA 2.0
386 High Street North, Manor Park, London E12
The Ruskin Arms
CAMRA describes it as a former Bass Charrington pub, once a rock pub to which the Small Faces and Iron Maiden both trace their roots.
Closed. See the building from High Street North; do not try to go in.
Sources
Bow Creek at Canning Town, 2025: the Bridge House stood on its banks by the A13. Jim Osley · CC BY-SA 2.0
Bow Creek, Canning Town, London E16 (the pub is gone)
The Bridge House (site)
The Bridge House sat on the banks of Bow Creek: the first pub you reached coming into Newham on the A13.
Nothing survives. Canning Town station stands by Bow Creek and the flyover, where the pub was.
Sources

Stay

By the Odeon, by the island.

A hotel in Hammersmith, and a beach resort in Nassau that shares the studio’s name.

Novotel London West

Novotel London West, Hammersmith

1 Shortlands, Hammersmith, London W6 8DR · Book direct

A 630-room hotel on Shortlands in Hammersmith, near the old Odeon. Pictured: the Eventim Apollo.

Check rooms

Compass Point Beach Resort

Compass Point Beach Resort, Nassau

West Bay Street, Nassau, New Providence · Book direct

A beach resort on West Bay Street that shares the Compass Point name. The old studio is private and closed to visitors. Pictured: the studio sign, 2014.

Check rooms

Go there

Walk it.

Music walks in London, and tours in Rio, Nassau and Long Beach.

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London rock music tours

London

Live marketplace results for rock and music history walks in London. Camden is the usual stop; check each itinerary for its route.

Live marketplace results · itineraries change

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Rio de Janeiro tours

Rio de Janeiro

Live marketplace results for city tours of Rio de Janeiro, including Barra da Tijuca and the west zone.

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Nassau tours

Nassau, the Bahamas

Live marketplace results for tours of Nassau and New Providence. None visits the studio, which is private.

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Long Beach tours

Long Beach, California

Live marketplace results for tours of Long Beach. The arena and its whale mural are on the waterfront.

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What’s on

Back at the Cart.

British Lion’s six December nights at the pub, and Nicko McBrain telling stories in Paris and London.

Checking current event dates…

Take it home

Three books and five records.

The records made in the places on this page.

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What Does This Button Do?

Bruce Dickinson

The singer’s own story, flying included.

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Iron Maiden: Run to the Hills, the Official Biography

Mick Wall

The band’s story from the East End pubs on.

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Iron Maiden

Martin Popoff

An illustrated history, album by album.

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