Yungblud's Beautifully Romanticised Accidentally Traumatized is making one London street sing again

Denmark Street has been a hub of creativity since the 1930s. This was London’s answer to Tin Pan Alley, a songwriting hotspot, home to recording studios, music publishers, where in the 1960s and ‘70s, icons like The Rolling Stones and David Bowie hung out.

More recently, it was the best place for guitar shopping in the country. And the home of legendary gig venues such as the 12 Bar Club – a tiny venue with a corner stage and balcony that hosted the likes of Jeff Buckley, The Libertines and many of Adele’s early gigs.

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But 10 years ago, Denmark Street was earmarked for demolition. Crossrail was one of the biggest disruptions to the centre of London in decades – and many cultural venues were lost. Walking from Charing Cross, past old bookshops, new coffee joints and co-working spaces, the impact on central London’s music culture is visible.

While Foyles the bookshop survives, evolves and thrives, and the Phoenix Theatre has kept its lights on, the Astoria, the Borderline, The End and so many more music and club spaces have gone. New theatre Soho Place has opened on the corner where the Dionysus chip shop once fried, and Old Compton Street remains the beating heart of the capital’s gay scene.

Denmark Street is also fighting back. The guitar shops still draw devotees, Rough Trade opened a new record shop here in late 2024. Last August, Yungblud reinforced its rejuvenation, opening his Beautifully Romanticised Accidentally Traumatized fashion outlet / coffee shop / gig venue / hangout for fans and followers, misfits and misshapes, goths, rockers and new generations of subcultural music fans.

Alongside investment was a much-needed boost in energy, noise and chaos. It arrived with a street party featuring Yungblud and other musicians on makeshift stages, establishing a renewed sense of community.

Elle Shoel welcomes us to the shop on a Wednesday morning. Creative director of Beautifully Romanticised Accidentally Traumatized, it’s easy to see how she connected with Dominic Harrison, aka Yungblud.

Her enthusiasm for the creations that are on display is infectious. There’s a dress on a mannequin next to her desk in the design studio, which is visible via a window in the shop, like an old-fashioned tailor, opening up the creative process.

“It’s made of World War Two sweetheart cushions,” she says. “Soldiers used to embroider them to send back to their wives or girlfriends. Traditionally, it’s such a feminine thing but it was one of the only things they could do in the trenches. So we sourced a bunch of them. I love the subversion of masculinity – that juxtaposition is my whole jam.”

Shoel has known Yungblud for years.

“We met at the Hawley Arms in Camden. All roads lead to the Hawley Arms. I’ve always done freelance design, trend forecasting, I did flower arranging – but in between, I’d always be at the Hawley.

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“Dom looked at me and was like, ‘you’re a fucking witch’. I went, ‘you are!’ And we’ve been besties ever since. They did one season of Beautifully Romanticised Accidentally Traumatized which Jesse Jo [Stark], Dom’s girlfriend worked on with him. But she’s got so much going on because she’s creative director of Chrome Hearts [luxury fashion brand], which her family run.

“Dom was like, where the fuck am I going to get someone else. But when I made him this custom piece of clothing that had the Batcave – which was a goth club in the ’80s – logo on it, he was like, That’s fucking sick, how do you feel about designing my clothing brand?

“Hmmm. How do I feel about designing a clothing brand with my best mate in the middle of Soho? Pretty good!

“And he’s so hands on, even when he is in LA, we have a meeting every week. And when he’s in the UK, he’s in here all the time.”

The influences are worn clearly, but there is also a sense of mission and an excitement at the shock of the new. Behind us is a new hoodie design. It has echoes of Vivienne Westwood’s famous cowboys motif, but is based on a photograph from the launch party.

“So it’s from our story,” says Shoel. “I think that’s why people connect to Dom – because this is his life, his story, his community and people can feel that.

“I came up with the term neo-heritage. Dom was talking about how to reference the heritage without just being a pastiche of it, without just copy-and-pasting something that already exists – which a lot of brands do.

Neo-heritage is a fusion of something new and something old that creates something new. Everything’s a reference. There are no original ideas anymore, but that’s the joy of it.

“We keep coming back to this idea of community because it’s about bringing people together, young, creative people that have something new to offer. Our references might be Vivienne Westwood – SEX and Seditionaries [the designer’s legendary ’70s King’s Road shops] – but we didn’t just want a shop that looked like those. We needed a place for people to hang out.

“We wanted a community space and venue so we can showcase bands we know that are doing amazing stuff. We put on a gig by The Denmark Street Boys the other week, all these lads who work in the guitar shops.”

Certainly, it’s a space with a rich musical history. When the Beautifully Romanticised Accidentally Traumatized space was a piano shop in the late 1960s and early 1970s, one of the people working in the basement was Elton John.

This has been verified, Shoel laughs, by Yungblud messaging the veteran songwriter. He even wrote Your Song right here at 20 Denmark Street. The Cramps used to rehearse downstairs too.

The walls are covered in messages, lyrics and poems scrawled by Yungblud fans from across the world. But the original artworks on the walls are untouched, while the bespoke leopard print baize Shoel created for the pool table remains pristine.

This is a free space. People can leave their mark. But that respect works both ways. 

“When me and Dom started talking about this place, we wanted to build a scene and a community that we wanted to be part of, like the scene we felt we were in. We wanted to make it tangible. That’s why it’s so important we have the venue as well as the shop.

“One of the big aims is to have a space where people can come and they don’t have to buy anything. They don’t even have to buy coffee, they can come and just be, just exist. That is so rare.

If they have such a good time they want to buy a piece of clothing – great. But that’s not the sole purpose.

“We have Dom’s fans who are such an amazing community. They make friends there. They look after us and each other, and they respect the space. There’s so much goodwill.

On top of that, people from different subcultures come in and hang out, whether it’s goths or punks or mods or pop girls. Loads of our friends are in bands, they’ll come in when they’re getting guitar strings. It’s this mixing of worlds.

“In the world of algorithms, to have a physical space and physical connection to stuff is like a map to help you find things that you might like is so important, without just scrolling, scrolling.”

Yungblud no longer plays in small venues. But during his upcoming UK tour, the Beautifully Romanticised Accidentally Traumatized bus will be joining him, selling designs and merchandise. It’s DIY, but with an eye on the market as well.

“It’s all ethically made. Because we care. All the text you see on the hoodies was handpainted by us in the studio. It’s about creating things people give a fuck about.”

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