Roger K Burton, who has died aged 76 from acute myeloid leukaemia, turned a derelict former stables for ailing cab horses into London’s most independent and outré arts space. “The building had been unused for about 10 years when my friend Guy Adams found it in 1992. There were pigeons flying about, rats and mice everywhere and ivy growing through the collapsed roof – not to mention a thick layer of printing ink covering up the fabulous floor,” he said.

“It took a good six months to make the place habitable, but it was more than worth it. I still adore seeing the surprised faces of first-time visitors.” Since opening in 1993, the Horse Hospital, in a mews in Bloomsbury, has hung art by Joe Coleman, Ron Athey, Jamie Reid and Banksy; held transgressive film, literature and fashion festivals; run salons on all manner of unpopular culture; and hosted disparate performers such as Gavin Bryars, Lydia Lunch, Anita Pallenberg, Coil and Crass. The Turner prize-winning Tai Shani cut her teeth programming events under the wing of the unswervingly enthusiastic and generous Burton, whose magnetic presence drew in serious, but often marginalised, talent from around the globe.

The Georgian building also houses the Contemporary Wardrobe Collection, the nation’s largest repository of postwar youth culture fashion, which Burton collected; it was sumptuously photographed in his 2017 book Rebel Threads: Clothing of the Bad, Beautiful & Misunderstood, the last word on subversive style.

A teenage mod, the farmer’s son was led from rural Leicestershire to London by an obsessive pursuit of sharp dressing at the end of the 1970s. He created the distinctive appearance of Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood’s shops Worlds End in Chelsea and Nostalgia of Mud in St Christopher’s Place; he styled countless pop videos and films, including Julien Temple’s Absolute Beginners (1986), Iain Softley’s Hackers (1995) and Michael Haussman’s Blind Horizon (2003); and curated landmark exhibitions. He also served for many years on the jury board at Bafta.

The Horse Hospital’s inaugural Vive le Punk! (1993) was the first to gather together artefacts from all of McLaren and Westwood’s shops. There was a 20-year anniversary show of the same name that included documentary films of British youth culture.

Born in Burton Overy, Leicestershire, where his parents Joyce (nee Kinsley) and Kenneth Burton worked a tenant farm, Roger went to Gartree high school, Oadby. “I never had the opportunity nor desire to go to university. Hating authority, I left school as quickly as possible,” he said.

“I became a jack-of-all-trades and wheeler-dealer, and have somehow managed to survive by ducking and diving while gaining loads of knowledge. I guess I turned into the perennial student.”

His passion for fashion led to the opening of his first shop, Pioneer Antiques (later Hollywood Fashions) in Leicester. By 1976 he was making a living from vintage clothing and was searching for “dead stock” – pristine clothing unsold at the time of its manufacture.

In 1977, he opened the shop PX in Covent Garden, central London, with three friends from Leicester: Ric Carter, Steph Raynor and Helen Robinson. “We were offered this old warehouse by Andrew Czezowski, of Roxy club fame. I had a clear idea of what I wanted it to look like, and just happened to be passing a building in Mayfair that was being cleared out. We paid £20 for all this industrial ducting and metal cages, which fit perfectly with the boiler-room submarine vibe I was after – all courtesy of MI5.”

Though hailed by Michael Roberts in the Sunday Times as the future of retail, having made his mark with PX, Burton moved on. However, his shopfitting talents still remained in situ at Worlds End, with its backwards clock and rolling floorboards: “Everything, from my favourite Midlands pub, the Crooked House in Himley, to Alice in Wonderland, pirate ships and William Hogarth were drawn upon.”

After supplying the wardrobe department of Franc Roddam’s film Quadrophenia (1979) with mod suits that he had been selling on Portobello Road, Burton’s styling nous came to the fore in the golden age of the pop promo. He loved to recount how he had put both the Specials’ Terry Hall (Ghost Town) and the Kinks’ Ray Davies (Come Dancing) in the same 1940s pinstripe suit, describing both as “true professionals”. He said the same of David Bowie and George Harrison.

Life at the Horse Hospital was never easy. Bloomsbury began to be redeveloped in the early 2000s, and the building’s owners tried to oust him. Researching its history, Burton discovered it had been built by James Burton, the most successful property developer of Regency and Georgian London. It was Grade II listed and registered as a community asset. But it wasn’t until late 2024 that Roger attained sufficient funding to secure its future – at the same time as he received his diagnosis.

Throughout his treatment, he worked on the exhibition The In-Crowd: Mod Fashion and Style 1958-1966 at Brighton Museum, and was present at its opening in May (it runs until 4 January). Burton summed up his philosophy as: “A fierce determination and ability to deal with constant threat of failure. But if you put out enough positive vibes, you will find like-minded people, and they will gravitate to you.”

Roger is survived by Izabel Blackburn, whom he met in 1975 and married in 1983, their children Stevie, William and Simon, and grandchildren, Sam, Harrison, Nancy, Emmett, Joe and Ben.

• Roger Kenneth Burton, fashion historian and collector, born 12 June 1949; died 28 July 2025