UNTIL recently, Basingstoke’s only dedicated live music venue, (the) Sanctuary had occupied no. 18 London Street since 2011.

From the 1940s through to the 1960s it was the grocer’s store of David Greig. The DG initials and his emblematic thistles have survived numerous coats of paint and are clearly visible at either end of the shop front.

In the seventies the site was a religious bookshop named the Olive Tree.

It later became Berkshire Fabian Foods Ltd. (Frozen Food & Farmers’ Supermarket) and in the late eighties; Palmer’s Restaurant.

It was an Italian restaurant perhaps until it became the Sanctuary.