Lost record shops

[french frank]

'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.

Colston Classics! Yes! much confusion on my part So he predated your Broad Street shop ... ah, the mists of time and the mists of an ageing memory ... I will not continue here with reminiscences of Nick, Phoebe and Richard, colourful though they be

[mopsus]

I'm sure you're right. I never looked closely and assumed it was an Oxford college

Yes, it's the Lord Mayor's Chapel. Some years back I was put on the dep list to sing in the choir there, but have never been called on to sing a service, to my regret. When I asked John Marsh why not, he said 'I have some retired ladies who are free to stand in' - as if I worked on a Sunday morning! Now that he has retired from the post, I gather the choir is run from the Cathedral.

The window is like that of Merton College Oxford (where I studied and sang in the choir). Architectural historians have fun trying to work out which of such windows might have been designed by the same person (the window of the chapel of St David's Bishop's palace is another one which has been mentioned in this context).

I can't now remember which recordings I bought in Bristol Classical Discs (and I hadn't been in the area long when it shut) but I do remember being impressed by its range of 20th-century repertoire.

I am sorry to learn of the demise of Banks' shop. I recall going in there and leafing through sheet music for almost the complete range of Howells' canticle settings (and they are many). That and wandering through Mulberry Hall's china and glass displays used to be highlights of shopping trips to York.

There are places where CD shops with interesting stock survive, but not many in this country. I have been told of good ones in Budapest and Brescia.

[Aureliano]

I've enjoyed reading this trip down memory lane of London (and other) record shops. Someone mentioned the Templar Records shop in Irving Street, but there was also one at 86 High Holborn and one at 76 Chancery Lane (I even remember first seeing all the BIS Tubin Symphonies on vinyl in this shop). Farringdon records were at 52 High Holborn and 42 Cheapside but also 64 Lambs Conduit Street. And of course Foyles and Dillons also both sold some records. There was another record shop, I think it might of been in Bloomsbury Street in between where it joins Great Russell Street and where it joins New Oxford Street, I can't remember what it was called but it sold both secondhand and new records. I bought Ansermet's Decca recording of Le Baiser De La Fee there. I also remember a small corner site record shop down that way somewhere but can't place now where it would have been....perhaps where Bloomsbury Way joins New Oxford Street.

[makropulos]

I also remember a small corner site record shop down that way somewhere but can't place now where it would have been....perhaps where Bloomsbury Way joins New Oxford Street.

Would that be Caruso and Co., run by Sally Rettig and Colin Butler after they left Henry Stave's (and Direction Dean Street)? I remember it very fondly – and Sally was a tremendous character.

[Jonathan]

There is still a second hand CD shop in Harrogate - Pomp & Circumstance. I've not been in for years but it was still there when I drove past a couple of weeks ago. It used to be in the centre and very convenient but it's moved to the outskirts now.

[hmvman]

I am sorry to learn of the demise of Banks' shop. I recall going in there and leafing through sheet music for almost the complete range of Howells' canticle settings (and they are many). That and wandering through Mulberry Hall's china and glass displays used to be highlights of shopping trips to York.

Banks was never the same after it became part of the Music Room chain. The once wonderful record department became a mere shadow of its former self quite a while before the shop closed.

[Aureliano]

Would that be Caruso and Co., run by Sally Rettig and Colin Butler after they left Henry Stave's (and Direction Dean Street)? I remember it very fondly – and Sally was a tremendous character.

It may have been if Caruso and Co ended moving around a fair bit. I remember Caruso when it was on the south side of New Oxford St between the junction with Shaftesbury Avenue and the junction with Museum St, and later they moved to Charlotte Place, a passage off Rathbone St. But before both of these it is possible they had a different site on this corner site that I seem to be recollecting.

[makropulos]

It may have been if Caruso and Co ended moving around a fair bit. I remember Caruso when it was on the south side of New Oxford St between the junction with Shaftesbury Avenue and the junction with Museum St, and later they moved to Charlotte Place, a passage off Rathbone St. But before both of these it is possible they had a different site on this corner site that I seem to be recollecting.

Ah - you're quite right, Caruso was Museum St and New Oxford Street I was thinking about. A completely different shop that I remember fondly was Discurio in Shepherd Market – where I sometimes found unusual imported records that Gramophone Exchange or Staves didn't have.

[Alison]

Given the choice would I prefer the convenience and early delivery of purchasing discs online or the return of these much loved shops whose very existence was a kind of heaven?

[hmvman]

Given the choice would I prefer the convenience and early delivery of purchasing discs online or the return of these much loved shops whose very existence was a kind of heaven?

That is a tough choice! Wonderful as Banks in York was I was caught out when needing a record in a hurry and was told that they only sent their orders in on Saturdays.

[Petrushka]

Given the choice would I prefer the convenience and early delivery of purchasing discs online or the return of these much loved shops whose very existence was a kind of heaven?

If I, or my mother on my behalf in those days, had ordered an LP in the late 1960s from our lowly local record shop on a Tuesday it was ready to collect on a Friday. We would find this to be impressive service from Amazon even today.

[oliver sudden]

Ah - you're quite right, Caruso was Museum St and New Oxford Street I was thinking about. A completely different shop that I remember fondly was Discurio in Shepherd Market – where I sometimes found unusual imported records that Gramophone Exchange or Staves didn't have.

Fancy that! I also have very fond memories of Discurio. But it was in McKillop St in the Melbourne CBD.

I suppose ‘mine’ might well have been named after ‘yours’…

(By the way, if you are the same makropulos once of r3ok and I haven’t got my wires crossed, I think a little while back I acquired a copy of the Poulenc Journal de mes mélodies that was ex your libris!)

[Andrew353w]

Sandra's Music Centre, of Alhalland Street, Bideford! I spent many many hours of a mis-spent youth therein! Long gone, I know, as I always walk along the road when I return to the town of my birth, but the memories linger..... I STILL have an ashtray from the shop!

[Old Grumpy]

Sandra's Music Centre, of Alhalland Street, Bideford .....I STILL have an ashtray from the shop!

Bought or (erhem) acquired?

[Andrew353w]

Bought or (erhem) acquired?

Probably acquired as a gift, for numerous purchases over many years! At the time I worked as a D.J. and bought all my records from there-it was a lot of records over the years!