Rock Shrine No. 47 – Kensington Hypermarket [Jimi Hendrix, Queen]
-
Artist:
One of the best shopping experiences of the 60s and 70s, Kensington Hypermarket was a multi-floor building filled with tiny stalls owned by budding clothes designers and retail wannabes. It was popular because they moved quickly with the times, with groovy psychedelic gear in the 60s, Biba and velvet rockstar knockoffs in the early 70s and punk clobber in '76 and '77.
Freddy Mercury owned one such outlet and it is here that Roger Taylor first met him.
On September 17, 1970, the last afternoon of Jimi Hendrix's life, he went shopping with girlfriend Monika Dannemann and spent a good part of the afternoon here.
Although closed for many years it was only recently torn down and replaced with this nondescript office block.
Kensington Hypermarket, 49 - 52 Kensington High Street, London W8 6NS
More Rock Shrines:
Comments (4)
did you take this photo on the day we met?
good to see this place get its due respect as a Rock Shrine. since many of the artists i toured with based their Euro tours around London i spent months living in Kensington every year for awhile and walked there regularly, wearing new stuff to Royal Albert Hall or the Odeon for every gig. it got to the point that i ended up bringing an empty duffel bag on these trips to check on the flights home.
the Whole Foods up the block may be better than the one near my house in LA, but i really miss the market.
Yep, that's the photo.
Ha ha, I know that empty bag story only too well. Only in my case it was finding a cheap bag in London to get all the new clothes home. I ended up with a cupboard filled with cheap suitcases and overnight bags. Interestingly, retailer Phillip Green uses the Hypermarket concept in his Topshop chain and the result is the most happening department shop in the country.
I used to love Kensington Market - and was a regular visitor during the 80s mainly for the bootleg tape stall. Have you read Paul Gorman's The Look there's KM gets plenty of mentions in there
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Look-Adventures-Rock-Pop-Fashion/dp/0955201705
lovely. any offbeat hypermarket story, i'm there. i am a little obsessed with markets' marketing ideas. i still know a few nondescript locations here in Manila where the rockstar knockoffs are impossible to pass up on ... they're some of my closely guarded secrets. (: