CARNABY COOL; It's 50 Years since One Soho Side-Street Started to Take off as London's Hippest Shopping Destination. Jonathan Prynn Joins the Celebration

Byline: Jonathan Prynn

IT'S LESS than 200 yards from end to end but for almost a decade its global influence was greater than any other thoroughfare in Britain -- with the arguable exception of Downing Street.

Carnaby Street was first built in the late 1680s but it will be forever synonymous with the decade when shops such as His Clothes, I Was Lord Kitchener's Valet and Kleptomania led successive waves of fashion culture from the mods and rockers of the mid-Sixties through the psychedelic hippy era to the Afghan and cheesecloth look of the early Seventies.

Although the street has more than 300 years of history, this year the 140 shops in and around Carnaby Street are marking the 50th anniversary of the start of its extraordinary Sixties heyday with a series of major events.

The celebrations begin on Friday 26 February with the launch of a free "Carnaby Street 1960 to 2010" exhibition at number 38 filled with artefacts ranging from a Sixties paper dress to a rare original copy of the Kinks single Dedicated Follower of Fashion which celebrates the marching "Carnabetian Army".

There are also testimonies from key figures such as Who legend Pete Townshend and interviews with ordinary people who lived and worked in the area.

In June there will be a "Summer of Love" music festival in the street, inspired by the sounds that rocked the world almost half a century ago, and in September a fashion show will link the era of …

Questia, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning. www.questia.com
Publication information: Article title: CARNABY COOL; It's 50 Years since One Soho Side-Street Started to Take off as London's Hippest Shopping Destination. Jonathan Prynn Joins the Celebration. Contributors: Not available. Newspaper title: The Evening Standard (London, England). Publication date: February 4, 2010. Page number: 25. © Not available. COPYRIGHT 2010 Gale Group.

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