Eel Pie Island

Eel Pie Island is a small island in the middle of the Thames opposite Twickenham Embankment, accessible only by a footbridge that is private and mostly closed to the public. In the early 1960s, its ballroom hosted what became known as the Eel Pie Island Hotel concerts — a series of R&B and blues nights that helped launch the careers of the Rolling Stones, the Who, and a generation of British rock musicians. The Rolling Stones were the house band for a period.

The island is now residential — about 50 houses, a colony of artists' studios, and a boatyard. The Eel Pie Island Museum, a small private museum on the mainland opposite, celebrates the island's musical heritage and is open on occasional weekends. It is worth knowing about even if you can only see the island from the Twickenham Embankment across the water.

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The Rolling Stones played their first London shows at the Eel Pie Island Hotel ballroom in 1963. The Who, Pink Floyd, Rod Stewart, and John Mayall's Bluesbreakers all played here in the early years of British rock. The ballroom burned down in mysterious circumstances in 1971 — it was derelict and there were squatters on the island at the time. The musicians who remember it describe the venue with something approaching reverence.

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