To celebrate Carnaby’s 10 decades of musical heritage from jazz to rock to pop to punk, commemorative plaques will be installed on key buildings giving an insight into the vast music history  behind one of London’s most iconic streets.
As you visit each plaque and navigate the back street of Carnaby a walking tour app is also available to download via carnabyechoes.com, the App Store or Google Play. It’s a great and innovative touch that further aids in your music education providing interviews and performances from artists including The Sex Pistols, Cat Stevens, Kanye West and Amy Winehouse as you take in the places they’ve visited and performed at.
The plaques are the idea of artist Lucy Harrison and accompany an exhibit at Foubert’s Place where music fans can further indulge with contributions from Boy George, Mark Ellen, Lloyd Coxsone, Dynamo to name a few. Visit the exhibit to also receive a free pair of Carnaby branded headphones for each visitor.

On until 20 October, admission is free and once you see a picture of Tom Jones walking a cheetah on a leash, watching The Voice won’t be the same for you again. (Words: Lucy Palmer) 

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For those not already in the know, Hidden City is a text-message-based game that allows players to explore the quirkier parts of their local surroundings. Each hunt has a number of clues, which send you on a trail through various locations as you text in the right answers. You can take part with friends or group off into multiple teams, depending on how competitive you all are. There’s also the added joy of being timed throughout, which somehow immediately propels you into a sense of urgency.

At first, the texts fly back and forth between our mysterious phone friend and ourselves. Soon, the gap between texts is more extensive, as we huff and puff our way over Waterloo Bridge, make a few incorrect detours up some stairs and through some gardens, before ending up near Nelson’s Column. A sidestep into St Martins-in-the-Fields results in an unexpected string quartet concert, which provides a lovely musical accompaniment to the rising stress levels of not being able to solve the next damn clue…

If you get stuck you can ask for help, but be warned: each ‘hint’ adds 20 minutes to your overall time. However, after traipsing through three floors of an art gallery and still not finding our requisite answer, we were happy to begin ruining our score.

Our result? Officially, we scored 2 hours 26 minutes, but due to excessive use of the ‘hint’ service, this became a demoralising 4 hours 26 minutes. Ouch.

Hunts range from cryptic clues in Covent Garden to spotting street art in Shoreditch, and there’s even a West End warm-up to a group night out. The ‘hunt’ can last anywhere from 2-4 hours and costs £16 per team. Local London knowledge isn’t necessary, but taking an A-Z is a good idea. See www.inthehiddencity.com for more info. (Words: Flora Baker) 

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