Sound Techniques A Lost London Recording Studio in the Recording History of Nick Drake

Next time you walk along the King’s Road in London, look up when you reach the corner with Smith Street. Just be careful not to step into traffic. Set into the top of a handsome red brick building is a cow’s head, with the name Wright’s Dairy picked out beneath it.

It looks like a small curiosity, a leftover detail from Chelsea’s commercial past. In fact, this former dairy became one of London’s most quietly influential recording spaces.

Sound Techniques Recording Studio

Long after milk churns had given way to empty rooms, the building housed Sound Techniques Studio, an independent studio that helped shape British music at the end of the 1960s and into the early 1970s. Tucked just off the King’s Road at 45a Old Church Street, with its entrance around the corner, it was never a glamorous operation. It was practical, modest and unusually effective.

The studio was bought and set up by two sound engineers, Geoff Frost and John Wood. They chose the former dairy for a simple reason. Its slate lined walls provided excellent sound insulation at very little cost, which made it ideal for recording live musicians in close proximity. A few internal walls were removed, a recording space created, and the studio was ready for use.

What followed was a short but remarkable period. Despite lasting for little more than a decade, the studio attracted an extraordinary roll call of artists. Nick Drake recorded much of Bryter Layter here, capturing the intimate, carefully arranged sound that would define his work. Elton John, T-Rex and Pink Floyd all passed through its doors.

Early Pink Floyd Recordings

Pink Floyd’s connection to the studio came early. With Syd Barrett still at the centre of the band, they recorded their first singles, Arnold Layne and See Emily Play, sessions that led directly to a record contract and their debut album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn.

The studio also became closely associated with the British folk scene. Vashti Bunyan recorded Just Another Diamond Day here, an album that would grow quietly in reputation over time. Fairport Convention recorded Liege & Lief, one of the defining albums of British folk music, within these walls. Producers such as Joe Boyd recognised the way the room handled string arrangements, which only added to its appeal.

Nick Drake Recording Sessions

Nick Drake’s association with Sound Techniques runs deeper than a single album. He recorded large parts of Bryter Layter here, working closely with producer Joe Boyd and engineer John Wood to achieve the carefully balanced sound that defines the record.

There is also strong evidence that sessions for Five Leaves Left took place at Sound Techniques. While Drake recorded across several London studios during this period, John Wood’s close involvement and the studio’s reputation for handling acoustic instruments and strings place it firmly within the album’s recording story. The restrained arrangements and intimate vocal sound that characterise Five Leaves Left sit comfortably alongside other work known to have been recorded in this room.

Sound Techniques became, for a time, Drake’s natural recording home in London. The studio’s modest size, lack of commercial pressure and sympathetic engineers suited an artist who worked best away from spectacle. In a catalogue built on understatement, the King’s Road studio played a quiet but formative role.

For a place with no signage and little sense of ceremony, Sound Techniques became a dependable creative home. Musicians came to work rather than to be seen. That may be why its reputation endures.

The Lost London Recording Studio

The studio eventually closed, but the building remains largely unchanged. The recording rooms are gone, the entrance blocked up, yet the identity of the place still lingers if you know where to look. The cows are still perched above the street, a reminder of what the building once was, and what it quietly became.

To find Wright’s Dairy Head, walk down the King’s Road from Sloane Square, staying on the left-hand side. The red brick building sits on the corner of Smith Street. The nearest tube station is Sloane Square, served by the Circle and District lines.

It is an easy landmark to miss if you are not paying attention. For those interested in London’s music history, it is worth slowing down, looking up, and remembering what was recorded beneath the cows of the King’s Road.

Look up to see the cows of King’s Road!

Where to find Wright's Dairy

Head down the King's Road from Sloane Square, staying on the left hand side of the road. You will find the distinctive red building on the corner of the King's Road and Smith Street. The original entrance is now blocked up but you can still see the cows perched atop the building. Nearest tube will be Sloane Square on the Circle Line.

Château d’Hérouville: A French Recording Studio Used by Elton John, Bowie, Pink Floyd and the Bee Gees

Before Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, before the sold-out stadiums and sequinned spectacles, there was a quiet village just north of Paris. It was here, in the early 1970s, that Elton John found both refuge and inspiration. The result? An album that would mark the beginning of a golden era.

So where did Elton John record Honky Château? The answer lies just north of Paris at the residential studio Château d’Hérouville. Set in the French countryside about an hour from Paris, the château offered artists something rare: space to create without distraction, yet with all the comforts needed to keep a band focused and productive.

By the time of recording in January 1972, Elton was already on the cusp of superstardom. Tumbleweed Connection and Madman Across the Water had established him as a serious artist, but Honky Château was the breakout moment. The album gave us "Rocket Man," a song that would take flight across the world—and the album’s title itself would put this quiet French studio on the map.

There’s a thread of Americana running through this period of Elton’s music. Tumbleweed Connection was overtly American in tone, and Honky Château continued that exploration — blending storytelling, space-age longing, and subtle Southern flavours. That a British artist captured this spirit while recording in a French chateau speaks to the broad appeal of Americana as a sensibility rather than a location.

Château d’Hérouville wasn’t new to music. It had been converted into a recording space in the early '60s, but it wasn’t until the 1970s that it began drawing major acts. The Grateful Dead stopped by in 1971, playing an impromptu gig in the garden. Elton recorded not just Honky Château, but returned for Don't Shoot Me I'm Only the Piano Player and parts of Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.

And Elton wasn’t the only one. Pink Floyd came here to record Obscured by Clouds. David Bowie tracked Pin Ups in 1973, and returned in 1976 for Low — the first of his Berlin Trilogy. Producer Tony Visconti would later claim the château had a "presence" that was hard to ignore. Whether that meant ghosts or just good acoustics, the place clearly had an atmosphere.

Between 1971 and 1985, the studio welcomed a remarkable list of names: Iggy Pop, Cat Stevens, Fleetwood Mac, the Bee Gees, Rick Wakeman, MC5, The Sweet, and Uriah Heep, among others. But as musical fashions changed and large residential studios fell out of favour, the château fell quiet. For a time, it was left to decay.

Today, Château d’Hérouville has been restored and returned to its roots as a recording space. Though you can’t just wander in, it still stands—an elegant reminder of the era when artists left the limelight for a countryside escape, and returned with magic on tape.

Songs & Albums Recorded at Château d’Hérouville

This quiet French château has played host to some iconic albums and tracks. Here’s a selection of the music born behind its doors:

• Elton John – Honky Château, Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only the Piano Player, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road

• Pink Floyd – Obscured by Clouds

• David Bowie – Pin Ups, Low

• Iggy Pop – The Idiot

• Bee Gees – "How Deep Is Your Love?", "Stayin’ Alive" (Saturday Night Fever soundtrack)

Finding the Château

A short musical pilgrimage from Paris, Château d’Hérouville sits in the village of Hérouville-en-Vexin, just off the D928. It’s not vast, but the village is small enough that you won’t miss it.

Address:

4-6 Rue Georges Duhamel, 95300 Hérouville-en-Vexin, France

While it remains a private property, fans can still pass by and reflect on the music born behind those walls.

This is just one of many stops on the map of rock history—the kind of place that shaped records quietly, while the world turned its attention to the charts. At Wine Travel & Song, we like to think of them as musical pilgrimages: places worth seeking out, even if only from the road.