Chelsea Drugstore

The Chelsea Drugstore was a sleek, modern travertine and brushed steel building on the corner of Royal Avenue and Kings Road, Chelsea. It opened in 1968.[1] Designed by architect Antony Cloughley and designer Colin Golding of GCB Associates, and inspired by Le Drugstore on Boulevard St Germain in Paris, Chelsea Drugstore was arranged over three floors and on most days remained open for up to 16 hours. Inside customers would find bars, a chemist, newsstands, record stores and other concessions. A popular service was the 'flying squad' delivery option run by the store.[2] Those who used this service would have their purchases delivered by hand by young ladies adorned in purple catsuits arriving on flashy motorcycles. Both pub and retail shops below were open until the late 1980s. The store became a wine bar, and is now a McDonald's.

The Chelsea Drugstore in west London

The store is notably mentioned in The Rolling Stones song "You Can't Always Get What You Want", where Mick Jagger sings of meeting "Mr Jimmy" and in The Kinks song "Did Ya", where Ray Davies sings "Now the Chelsea Drugstore needs a fix, it's in a state of ill repair". Chelsea Drugstore is also the title of a 2012 EP by UK band The Jetsonics [3] as well as it being a film location in Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange.[4]

References
  1. Colin Golding FSIAD
  2. "Chelsea Drugstore in the 1970s".
  3. "Home". Archived from the original on 2018-09-01. Retrieved 2020-07-18.
  4. Reeves, Tony. "Filming Locations for A Clockwork Orange (1971)". Archived from the original on 2006-12-10. Retrieved 2009-03-17.


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