It’s one of rock’s enduring mysteries – where did Led Zeppelin have their first rehearsal…? A moment that has prompted no small amount of mythology, the rehearsal session that saw Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, and John Bonham unite for the first time changed the course of music history – yet until now, no one has been 100% sure where it is.

Blame the passing of time. Blame illicit substances. Blame the complex geography of Soho itself. When Led Zeppelin got together in August 1968 few could have foreseen the influence it would have, hence no one writing the actual location down.

Received wisdom has it that the feted session took place at 39 Gerrard Street, utilising a basement space for a rehearsal room. It’s a street with no small degree of pedigree – Charles Dickens mentions it in Great Expectations, for example.

But there’s a few issues with this location. Firstly, it’s a little bigger than the mutual accounts of the band might allow. Secondly, it had a stage – would Led Zeppelin really forget a detail like this? And finally, it was the original location of Ronnie Scott’s before it moved to Frith Street – is that something the band would overlook in their accounts?

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Now new biopic Becoming Led Zeppelin appears to have cracked it. As the website LedZepNews points out, the acclaimed film goes deep on the band’s origins, including some incredible new details.

The newly cited location is actually 19 Gerrard Street, meaning that decades of fans photographs outside the former address have been taken in the wrong spot.

The research is painstaking. According to band interviews, the basement was in Soho, and was situated underneath a record shop – 19 Gerrard Street had housed a record shop, which closed shortly before that fateful rehearsal session.

A floor layout proves that it’s smaller than the previously cited location, and crucially doesn’t feature a stage.

There’s also another connection. Peter Grant worked with the Jeff Beck Group before helping launch Led Zeppelin, and a vintage Beat Instrumental piece on that band cites 19 Gerrard Street as the location for Beck & Co’s rehearsals – so the manager was familiar with this location.

Piecing the information together, it seems highly likely that 19 Gerrard Street is the actual location of that first Led Zeppelin band rehearsal.

A moment that changed music forever – check out the fascinating research on LedZepNews.

Related: The Welsh Cottage That Changed Led Zeppelin Forever

Becoming Led Zeppelin is out now.

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