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King Crimson in 1972, a five-piece group posed together
King Crimson, August 1972. Unknown author · Public domain

Tape window · ten strips · eight seconds each

King Crimson

On their first day, four of them carried a Mellotron down into a café basement. Every key below is one of their places. Hold it, and you have eight seconds.

Wimborne Minster and Bournemouth · the 1950s and 1960s

A Dorset market town,
a guitar at eleven.

The towers of Wimborne Minster church under a blue sky
Wimborne Minster, the town’s church, in June 2015. Bellminsterboy · CC BY-SA 4.0

WIMBORNE MINSTER · DORSET

Wimborne Minster

Robert Fripp was born in Wimborne Minster, a town in Dorset, the second child of a working-class family.

At eleven, at Christmas 1957, his parents gave him a guitar, and he knew almost at once it would be his life. For a time he gave guitar lessons to a Wimborne friend, Al Stewart.

Later he spent three years playing light jazz in the Majestic Dance Orchestra at the Majestic Hotel in Bournemouth; in those years he met Greg Lake and John Wetton. Wessex Studios began in Bournemouth too: the Thompson family ran a hi-fi shop there above a studio before moving to London.

A market town in east Dorset; the Minster church stands on High Street in the centre. Pictured: the Minster.

Sources
Robert Fripp seated, playing an electric guitar, in glasses
Robert Fripp on stage with King Crimson, 1973 or 1974. Jim Summaria · CC BY-SA 3.0

193 Fulham Palace Road, W6 · from 13 January 1969

Down the café stairs,
with a Mellotron.

A row of small shops on Fulham Palace Road
Shops along Fulham Palace Road, December 2025. Mr Ignavy · CC BY-SA 2.0

13·01·1969

Fulham Palace Road Café

Greg Lake, Ian McDonald, Michael Giles and Robert Fripp held their first rehearsal in the café’s basement on 13 January 1969.

Pete Sinfield had found the room; that day he, Dick Fraser, Fripp and Lake hauled the Mellotron from Ian McDonald’s place down to its new home underground. The basement was the band’s base for the next two and a half years, until the autumn of 1971.

Island’s Muff Winwood came down the stairs, was unimpressed and said they reminded him of the Tremeloes. The café is still trading, but the basement is no longer used by bands.

Still a café, on a busy main road; the basement is no longer a rehearsal room. Pictured: shops along Fulham Palace Road.

Sources
Novotel London West

Novotel London West, Hammersmith

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

A 630-room hotel on Shortlands in Hammersmith, a walk from Fulham Palace Road. Pictured: shops along Fulham Palace Road.

Check rooms
Margaret Street in central London, lined with tall buildings
Margaret Street, W1, in 2010. Robin Sones · CC BY-SA 2.0

48 MARGARET STREET · W1

The Speakeasy

The Moody Blues came to see them at the Speakeasy; afterwards Crimson lost the support slot on their tour, because, Fripp said, the Moodies knew Crimson would blow them off stage.

The Speakeasy, at 48 Margaret Street, was a late-night meeting place for the music business from 1966 to June 1978. King Crimson are among the bands who played there.

The club closed in 1978; the address is on a public street a few minutes from Oxford Circus. Pictured: Margaret Street.

Sources

The Mellotron · a strip of tape under every key

Ten keys, ten places.
Eight seconds each.

A Mellotron has no loops: under each key is a length of tape that lasts about eight seconds. Hold a key and its tape plays until you let go; then a spring pulls it back, ready again.

A row of small shops on Fulham Palace Road
Shops along Fulham Palace Road, December 2025. Mr Ignavy · CC BY-SA 2.0

FULHAM PALACE RD, 1969

Fulham Palace Road Café

Greg Lake, Ian McDonald, Michael Giles and Robert Fripp held their first rehearsal in the café’s basement on 13 January 1969.

193 Fulham Palace Road, Hammersmith, London W6

Sources

Ten keys, one place each, in date order. Hold a key down (mouse, finger, or Space): its tape plays for eight seconds.

The Serpentine lake in Hyde Park under a cloudy sky
The Serpentine, Hyde Park, June 2023. Mike Peel (www.mikepeel.net) · CC BY-SA 4.0

Hyde Park · Saturday 5 July 1969

650,000

Six months old,
in front of a city.

On 5 July 1969 King Crimson supported the Rolling Stones in Hyde Park, before an estimated audience of 650,000.

Their managers, David Enthoven and John Gaydon, tried everything to get on the bill; the organisers would not take money but put them on for sheer brazenness. Greg Lake remembered the crowd standing up during Schizoid Man, and knowing as he walked off that it was a turning point.

A Royal Park, free and open daily from early morning. Marble Arch, Hyde Park Corner and Lancaster Gate are on its edges.

Sources

The headliners’ side of the day: the Rolling Stones’ World

Highbury New Park, N5 · summer 1969

No producer, a Moon landing,
a painting on the floor.

  1. 7 JULY 1969

    After June sessions at Morgan that did not work, the band moved to the more spacious Wessex and tried again with Tony Clarke on 7 July 1969.

  2. 16 JULY

    On 16 July they walked away from Clarke to produce themselves; their managers guaranteed the £15,000 recording costs.

  3. 21 JULY

    They began for the third time on Monday 21 July, as Armstrong and Aldrin walked on the Moon.

  4. MID-AUGUST

    In mid-August 1969 Barry Godber carried his painting into Wessex in brown paper and laid it on the floor; Lake said the face seemed to scream Schizoid Man.

  5. 20 AUGUST

    21st Century Schizoid Man was cut in one live take, and Fripp’s one-take solo was the last overdub, on 20 August 1969.

  6. OCTOBER

    The album came out in October 1969 and went to No. 5 in Britain.

A Victorian stone church on a leafy Highbury street
St Augustine’s Church, Highbury New Park, in 2009. Wessex Studios was in its former church hall. ceridwen · CC BY-SA 2.0

Wessex Sound Studios

Wessex was at 106a Highbury New Park, in a church hall built in 1881 for St Augustine’s. The building was sold to a residential developer in 2003.

Now private flats: named here by its street and not mapped. Pictured: St Augustine’s Church, Highbury New Park, whose hall the studio was.

Sources
Shops and traffic on the King’s Road in Chelsea
King’s Road, Chelsea, October 2023. Dylan Moore · CC BY-SA 2.0

63a King’s Road

Godber, a friend of Pete Sinfield, was a computer programmer, not an artist, and this was the only album cover he painted. He died in February 1970, aged 24.

It was Fripp’s idea to have no print anywhere on the outside of the sleeve. The original hung for years in daylight at 63a King’s Road, EG’s office from 1970; Fripp watched its faces fade, took it down, and it is now stored at Discipline Global Mobile.

Offices and shops, not open as a King Crimson site: see the frontage from King’s Road. Pictured: King’s Road, Chelsea.

Sources

New York and Barnes · July 1974

A last great night,
then three of them in Barnes.

A summer funfair on Wollman Rink in Central Park with skyscrapers behind
Wollman Rink, Central Park, in summer, 2008. Jim.henderson · Public domain

JULY 1974

Central Park

Fripp said it was the first gig since the 1969 band that he felt as out of this world at the base of his spine.

Months of touring in 1974 ended with a show in New York’s Central Park, a week before the Red sessions.

A public park, free to enter every day. Pictured: Wollman Rink in summer.

Sources
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The brick front of Olympic Studios in Barnes
Olympic Studios, Church Road, Barnes, in 2015, after it became a cinema. Ewan Munro · CC BY-SA 2.0

08·07·1974

Olympic Studios

Bill Bruford, Robert Fripp and John Wetton went into Olympic Studios on 8 July 1974 to make Red.

Four young men in a 1974 press photograph
King Crimson in a 1974 Atlantic Records press photograph: John Wetton, David Cross, Robert Fripp and Bill Bruford. Distributed by Atlantic Records · Public domain

Apart from Starless, every studio piece was new, worked out in a sometimes difficult session. Fripp told the other two he would keep his opinions to himself while they recorded. By the time Red reached the shops, the band had ceased to exist.

The building is now a cinema, with a bar and bistro and a members’ club.

Now a cinema with a bar and bistro: the box office opens daily from 9 am until the last screening.

Sources

The Egg, Albany · 9 September 2014 · Royal Albert Hall · June 2019

Turn the stage round:
the drums come to the front.

Fripp described the idea as a conventional back line reconfigured as the front line.

The usual way round: drums at the back

  • G. HARRISONdrums
  • B. RIEFLINdrums
  • P. MASTELOTTOdrums
  • T. LEVINbass
  • M. COLLINSsax, flute
  • J. JAKSZYKguitar, voice
  • R. FRIPPguitar

AUDIENCE

A schematic of a usual rock stage, drums at the back. Turn it round.

King Crimson on a lit stage in Utrecht, 2015
King Crimson in Utrecht, 25 September 2015: the drum kits across the front of the stage. Steven Rieder · CC BY-SA 2.0
The Egg, a curved concrete performing arts centre in Albany
The Egg, Empire State Plaza, Albany, in 2018. A.S. · CC0

The Egg

King Crimson came back on 9 September 2014 at The Egg in Albany, the first of 17 American shows and their first since 2008.

There were seven players, four English and three American, with three drummers: Gavin Harrison, Bill Rieflin and Pat Mastelotto. The announcement dates the band’s birth to 13 January 1969, in the Fulham Palace Café basement.

A working performing arts centre on the Empire State Plaza: buy a ticket for any show.

Sources
The round brick Royal Albert Hall seen from across the road
The Royal Albert Hall from the Albert Memorial, November 2012. Diliff · CC BY-SA 3.0

Royal Albert Hall

On 18 June 2019 the three drummers, Gavin Harrison, Pat Mastelotto and Jeremy Stacey, sat at the front of the stage, and Fripp sat at the back on a stool.

Three nights at the Royal Albert Hall in June 2019 began the band’s 50th-anniversary year. Stacey, in the middle, would swivel on his stool to play keyboards. 21st Century Schizoid Man was the encore.

A working concert hall: buy a ticket for any show, or check its own site for tours.

Sources
Royal Garden Hotel

Royal Garden Hotel, Kensington

Kensington High Street, London

A five-star hotel on Kensington High Street beside Kensington Gardens, a short walk from the Royal Albert Hall; Kensington Gardens run on into Hyde Park.

Check rooms

The back of the cabinet

Every key
on one map.

Where it is now

9 places you can visit, from Wimborne to Albany. Wessex Studios is now private flats: it is named, not mapped. 63a King’s Road is seen from the street.

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

  • General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A market town in east Dorset; the Minster church stands on High Street in the centre. Pictured: the Minster.

  1. The towers of Wimborne Minster church under a blue sky
    Wimborne Minster, the town’s church, in June 2015. Bellminsterboy · CC BY-SA 4.0

    Wimborne Minster, Dorset

    Wimborne Minster

    Robert Fripp was born in Wimborne Minster, a town in Dorset, the second child of a working-class family.

    A market town in east Dorset; the Minster church stands on High Street in the centre. Pictured: the Minster.

    Sources

Stay

Sleep near the rooms.

A Hammersmith hotel for the basement, and a Kensington one for the Albert Hall and the park.

Novotel London West

Novotel London West, Hammersmith

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

A 630-room hotel on Shortlands in Hammersmith, a walk from Fulham Palace Road. Pictured: shops along Fulham Palace Road.

Check rooms
Royal Garden Hotel

Royal Garden Hotel, Kensington

Kensington High Street, London

A five-star hotel on Kensington High Street beside Kensington Gardens, a short walk from the Royal Albert Hall; Kensington Gardens run on into Hyde Park.

Check rooms

Go there

Walk the streets.

London’s music streets, and Central Park.

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Live marketplace results for guided music walks round Soho, Fitzrovia and the West End. Check each itinerary for the streets it covers; none goes inside the old studios.

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What’s on

Nothing listed.

No King Crimson dates are offered here.

No current dated events are listed. Check providers for the latest programme.

Take it home

One book, two records.

The band’s history, and the records made at Wessex and Olympic.

Bookshop.org UK · Ad / affiliate

In the Court of King Crimson

Sid Smith

The band’s history by the writer of DGM’s own anniversary pieces, from the café basement on.

Find the book
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In the Court of the Crimson King

King Crimson · LP, Island, 1969

Made at Wessex in the summer of 1969, released in October.

Live marketplace search · listings and condition change

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Red

King Crimson · LP, Island, 1974

The trio record from Olympic Studios in Barnes.

Live marketplace search · listings and condition change

Find a copy

Dates, prices, rooms and stock change: confirm with the provider before you travel or buy. A stay or tour is described as a filming location only where the card says so.

The full record

Every place and moment behind this page, with sources.

10 of 10 places · 15 of 15 Moments

  • Wimborne Minster

    Wimborne Minster, Dorset

    • Born in Wimborne

      Robert Fripp is born in Wimborne Minster, Dorset.

    • A guitar for Christmas

      At eleven he is given a guitar, and later teaches a Wimborne friend, Al Stewart.

    • The Majestic

      Three years of light jazz at Bournemouth’s Majestic Hotel; in those years he meets Greg Lake.

  • Fulham Palace Road Café

    193 Fulham Palace Road, Hammersmith, London W6

    • The first rehearsal

      Lake, McDonald, Giles and Fripp rehearse for the first time in the café basement at 193 Fulham Palace Road.

    • The Mellotron goes underground

      Sinfield, Fraser, Fripp and Lake carry the Mellotron down to the basement.

  • The Speakeasy

    48 Margaret Street, London W1

    • The Moodies come to watch

      The Moody Blues see Crimson at the Speakeasy, and the support slot goes.

  • Hyde Park

    Hyde Park, London W2

    • Hyde Park

      Supporting the Rolling Stones before an estimated 650,000.

  • Wessex Sound Studios

    Highbury New Park, London N5

    • Without a producer

      The band part with Tony Clarke and decide to produce the album themselves.

    • The third start

      Work on In the Court of the Crimson King begins again as men walk on the Moon.

    • The painting on the floor

      Barry Godber unwraps his painting on the studio floor.

  • 63a King’s Road

    63a King’s Road, Chelsea, London SW3

    • Taken out of the light

      The painting fades on the wall at 63a King’s Road until Fripp takes it down.

  • Central Park

    Central Park, Manhattan, New York

    • Out of this world

      The 1974 tour ends in Central Park.

  • Olympic Studios

    117–123 Church Road, Barnes, London SW13

    • Red

      Bruford, Fripp and Wetton make Red at Olympic as a trio.

  • The Egg

    Empire State Plaza, Albany, New York

    • The front line

      Seven players and three drummers return at The Egg.

  • Royal Albert Hall

    Kensington Gore, London SW7

    • Fifty years

      Three drummers at the front of the Royal Albert Hall stage, Fripp at the back.

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