Carnaby Echoes is a major public art project by artist Lucy Harrison, commissioned by Shaftesbury PLC and curated by Futurecity. Launched in 2013, the project reveals the rich and often overlooked music heritage of the Carnaby Street area through a multi-platform artwork combining film, audio, photography and text.

Developed through extensive archival research and the collection of personal testimonies, Carnaby Echoes explores how music, memory and place intersect. Harrison’s practice focuses on lived experience and the stories embedded in buildings and streets, uncovering histories that sit outside official narratives but are central to the cultural life of the area.

The project traces over a century of musical activity in and around Carnaby Street, from the opening of Murray’s Jazz Club on Beak Street in 1913 to contemporary music culture. Carnaby has been home to and inspired generations of artists across jazz, reggae, rhythm and blues, rock and hip hop, with clubs, record shops, publishers and fashion outlets forming a dense creative ecosystem.

A series of commemorative plaques installed across the neighbourhood mark significant sites and connect visitors to a digital walking tour, accessible via a dedicated website and mobile app. As audiences move through the streets, stories, sounds and performances are activated in situ, animating the public realm and reconnecting past and present.

Contributors include Boy George, Mark Ellen, Lloyd Coxsone and Dynamo, whose reflections anchor the project in lived memory. Together, Carnaby Echoes offers an immersive cultural map of one of London’s most influential creative districts.

Design by Charlie Smith Design, Photography by Thom Atkinson