Lost record shops

[french frank]

Is your avatar the Lord Mayor's chapel, College Green, Bristol? It looks like it.

I'm sure you're right. I never looked closely and assumed it was an Oxford college. Irrelevant factlet: that isn't the original medieval façade, which was replaced with a replica during Victorian renovations. The façade was bought by a businessman who had a mansion in Henbury with adjoining parkland where he installed it as a 'folly'. The parkland has long since been built on for housing, and an added feature of one of the new houses is that it has a Victorian folly in its tiny back garden.

https://thefollyflaneuse.com/the-lookout-henbury-bristol/

[Roger Webb]

I'm sure you're right. I never looked closely and assumed it was an Oxford college. Irrelevant factlet: that isn't the original medieval façade, which was replaced with a replica during Victorian renovations. The façade was bought by a businessman who had a mansion in Henbury with adjoining parkland where he installed it as a 'folly'. The parkland has long since been built on for housing, and an added feature of one of the new houses is that it has a Victorian folly in its tiny back garden.

https://thefollyflaneuse.com/the-loo...nbury-bristol/

Interesting! I've been to many concerts in the Lord Mayor's Chapel (if indeed it is that!) but didn't know the history of the facade, thanks. Didn't know about the Henbury connection either.

[Old Grumpy]

Banks' Music, York. Used to have a good CD stock. Sadly run down with the rise of streaming/downloads. The shop as a whole has now entirely retreated to the ether:

https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/heritage-and-retro/heritage/banks-of-york-britains-oldest-music-shop-which-has-traded-in-york-since-1756-to-close-4036765

JG Windows Newcastle-upon-Tyne- still going, but again much reduced CD stock.

https://jgwindows.com/cd-dvd-and-vinyl.html

[Pulcinella]

Hot off the York Press:

Since 1985 the iconic music shop was in Lendal but last year the store’s parent company Hal Leonard group announced it would close amid a drive to move business online – much to the despair of hundreds of York residents.

But now the building appears to be reopening as a restaurant.

Tom Limbert, director of Leeds-based Central Retail, revealed to The Press that Thai restaurant chain Giggling Squid has agreed to let the building.

https://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/241...icroom-lendal/

[Old Grumpy]

Hot off the York Press:

Since 1985 the iconic music shop was in Lendal but last year the store’s parent company Hal Leonard group announced it would close amid a drive to move business online – much to the despair of hundreds of York residents.

But now the building appears to be reopening as a restaurant.

Tom Limbert, director of Leeds-based Central Retail, revealed to The Press that Thai restaurant chain Giggling Squid has agreed to let the building.

https://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/241...icroom-lendal/

Great - I now know where I can get giggling sqid!

[ostuni]

Vincent's, Needless Alley, Birmingham: all my birthday & Christmas money spent there, c 1968-76. And now Needless Alley is the title of a whodunnit, by Natalie Marlow (on my Kindle, waiting to be read).

[CallMePaul]

Forsyth's in Deansgate, Manchester, has been running down its CD stock for some years by offering BOGOF on all its stock, and no recent issues were available on my last visit just before Christmas. As well as this, Manchester music lovers across all genres will be saddened to hear of the sudden death of the owner of Vinyl Exchange, Rae Donaldson: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-englan...ester-68326415. This may put this shop in jeopardy - it sells a very wide cross-section of pre-loved CDs and vinyl LPs, including classical, jazz, world music, folk etc as well as its main business in rock and pop.

[MickyD]

The Woods in the arcade in Bognor Regis was a treasure trove of second hand CDs for me in the 80s.

[smittims]

Sorry to hear about Forsyths CD section. For a long time they held out against the tide by maintaining a good stock of a wide diversity of labels and periods, not just popular new releases as HMV did, and the staff offered knowledgable advice .

I too remember Vincent's in Needless Alley , Birmingham. It was an unusual shop in that the stock (I'm going back to LP days now) was not all on display in browsers . You were expected to ask for what you wanted and they would advise or recommend. Again,they maintained a large and varied stock of all labels, their aim being to provide a recommendable recording for virtually any piece of classical music available on disc, and their knowledge and helpfulness was a distinct contrast to the attitude of 'if it ain't out there we ain't gorrit'. The proprietor, Reg Vincent, also promoted classical concerts in the Birmingham area, sometimes losing quantities of money inviting international artists to an insufficielntly-appreciative public .

I don't think it's going too far to say that in losing these places we have become less civilised.

[french frank]

I don't think it's going too far to say that in losing these places we have become less civilised.

Or to rephrase: because we have become less civilised, we are losing these places. I see no sign of Providence Records in Bristol which briefly appeared when Pastoral Records closed. First they were in St George's Road, just behind the Council House (as we used to call it), then moved up to St Michael's Hill. As I don't get into the city centre often, I'm not sure when it closed but it must have been quite short-lived.

[Roger Webb]

Or to rephrase: because we have become less civilised, we are losing these places. I see no sign of Providence Records in Bristol which briefly appeared when Pastoral Records closed. First they were in St George's Road, just behind the Council House (as we used to call it), then moved up to St Michael's Hill. As I don't get into the city centre often, I'm not sure when it closed but it must have been quite short-lived.

Nigel opened Providence as I closed (Bristol Classical Discs not Pastoral Music, that was my previous shop which moved to Broad St. in 1992) in 2002 (he bought my remaining stock and 'good will'...whatever that amounts to!), also 'afternoon Roger' (Dubois) went as his manager. The other shop you refer to was, as you say in St Michael's Hill and started by another employee of Nigel, Ruth. It was called Opus 13 and had a large stock of sheet music as well as CDs - it seems to have moved to Lower Park Row, and is still there as far as I can see!

BTW that Avatar was The Lord Mayor's Chapel facade...I took the little yellow man on Google Earth for walk down Park St last night and there it is...and, incidentally is right next to what was Fopp, which had small and patchy classical section..but an excellent foreign film dept. Half of the Eric Rohmer and Truffaut DVDs in my collection came from there.

[Pulcinella]

Or to rephrase: because we have become less civilised, we are losing these places. I see no sign of Providence Records in Bristol which briefly appeared when Pastoral Records closed. First they were in St George's Road, just behind the Council House (as we used to call it), then moved up to St Michael's Hill. As I don't get into the city centre often, I'm not sure when it closed but it must have been quite short-lived.

Maybe semantics, but civilisation evolves, so perhaps less cultured (but then only by previous/different standards)?
Not disputing the sadness of their loss, btw.

At one stage, Roger and I joked about setting up an ironing board in the window of their Christmas Steps shop and offering a drop in and collect later service; I could happily have ironed during the day while listening to and working my way through his stock!

[french frank]

Nigel opened Providence as I closed (Bristol Classical Discs not Pastoral Music, that was my previous shop which moved to Broad St. in 1992) in 2002 (he bought my remaining stock and 'good will'...whatever that amounts to!), also 'afternoon Roger' (Dubois) went as his manager. The other shop you refer to was, as you say in St Michael's Hill and started by another employee of Nigel, Ruth. It was called Opus 13 and had a large stock of sheet music as well as CDs - it seems to have moved to Lower Park Row, and is still there as far as I can see!

Yes, I'm confusing Providence with Opus 13 because, as you say, the latter was a new enterprise by a Providence employee. I remember the circumstances now. What's peculiar (me mem'ry not what it were) is that I either forgot or didn't know that you were the only begetter of Pastoral (as I recall at the top of Christmas Steps) which I thought was a separate enterprise of Nick W - whom I knew, as well as his parents - in a completely separate context.

[Again, quite irrelevant, there's a strange Google satellite image where you can't actually make out the LM's Chapel façade in its new location, but the sun catches its image and casts a huge recognisable shadow over the adjoining trees.]

And here it is:

[LMcD]

If you ever happen to visit Britain's biggest container port, you'll find 2 recently opened stores in adjacent premises in Orwell Road that specialize in vinyl discs - 'Onion Vinyl' and 'Grooveyard Records'.
Discurio, which I often visited at lunchtime as it was a short distance from my workplace in Buckingham Palace Road and mentioned some time ago and which Serial Apologist said he would check out, was at 9 Gillingham Street, just off Vauxhall Bridge Road. I don't know whether it is or was connected to the Discurio in Sidcup which specializes in brass band and military records.

[Roger Webb]

Yes, I'm confusing Providence with Opus 13 because, as you say, the latter was a new enterprise by a Providence employee. I remember the circumstances now. What's peculiar (me mem'ry not what it were) is that I either forgot or didn't know that you were the only begetter of Pastoral (as I recall at the top of Christmas Steps) which I thought was a separate enterprise of Nick W - whom I knew, as well as his parents - in a completely separate context.

[Again, quite irrelevant, there's a strange Google satellite image where you can't actually make out the LM's Chapel façade in its new location, but the sun catches its image and casts a huge recognisable shadow over the adjoining trees.]

And here it is:

Ah, the saga of CD (and LP) retailing in Bristol goes on!

'In the Beginning' there was Colston Classics in Colston St. (with apologies since Colston's fall from grace) run by Nick Winch (I too knew Phoebe and Richard). In about '87 I was asked to help out when Nick went of for a longish holiday to Greece. Not long after he became Don Foster's aid in the amazing defeat of Chris Patten in Bath, after which Nick went to Westminster as Don's number 2.

Nick and I had already started Pastoral Music as a mail order company specialising in 'British' music, and, because Nick owned the lease on the Colston St. shop wanted to sell it, so we moved round the corner to the top of Christmas steps. Later I became the sole owner of Pastoral, and in 1992 moved to Broad St. and changed the name to Bristol Classical Discs...and I think the rest is clear!