# CD/Record store recommendations in London, UK



## bigboy (May 26, 2017)

Hopefully this is the correct subforum for this?

At any rate, I recently moved to London and am slowly in the process of figuring out life in a new city.
Naturally my cup runneth over with live music offerings, but I would still like to have a place to pick up some recorded music every once in a while (I prefer to have actual physical media as opposed to the digital kind).

Maybe to open the discussion up a bit, I'd also love to hear other suggestions of where to get/hear music that might be a bit off the beaten path.

Thanks in advance!


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

I am not from London but google helped very quick, good hunting!

https://www.yelp.co.uk/search?find_desc=Cd+Store&find_loc=London

adding now, we have a thread similar will add as soon as I found it.


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## Nereffid (Feb 6, 2013)

Gramex seems to be still around: http://www.gramex.co.uk/

I was there once about 5 years ago, when it was located elsewhere on the same street, and it was without question the most enjoyable time I've ever spent in a classical music shop. A great selection of low-priced discs, and a very entertaining chat with the proprietor.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

How strange for me to see this request because I live in London but I haven't stepped into a record store for nearly 10 years. Gramex is still going and so is the tape and record exchange in Notting Hill, both used only. I have no idea where you'd go for a good stock of new recordings, a friend of mine once talked positively about Fopp somewhere near Cambridge Circus, and I was in Foyles recently (surprisingly, I don't use bookstores either!) and I noticed a few shelves of classical CDs, maybe Waterstones on Gower Street is worth checking out (Dillons always to me!) Is there something in the RFH or the Barbican, I can't remember. 

No doubt the Opera House shop is good if you want opera.


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## bigboy (May 26, 2017)

Gramex and Tape and Record exchange both look pretty great- I'm a bit of a skinflint so I'll always go used when I can 
I think the Barbican does have a large cd collection, but it's been closed the past few times I've gone for performances, so I'm not sure if it is exclusively LSO, BBC, etc. recordings or not...


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

The guy who runs Gramex is interesting to hear talking, you should plan to spend quite a long time there. I hope you'll report back on your impressions.

He still owes me a couple of hundred quid.


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

Harold Moore's up there on Great Marlborough is a treasure - I used to order from them 40 years ago. LPs! Then on to CDs. Not nearly the inventory that the great old HMV had, but for classical listeners, a nice place.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

mbhaub said:


> Harold Moore's up there on Great Marlborough is a treasure - I used to order from them 40 years ago. LPs! Then on to CDs. Not nearly the inventory that the great old HMV had, but for classical listeners, a nice place.


Closed down.

........


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## distantprommer (Sep 26, 2011)

Foyle's on Charing Cross Road has a small but efficient CD sub section within their music books section. Mostly you will find recent releases and myriad box sets. I regularly go there and seldom leave without having bought anything.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

I haven't been in it but I met someone who said that HMV on Oxford Street at Bond Street has been revamped and is thriving. I dare say they have some classical stock.

There's also Reckless Reckords, on Upper Steet Islington near the cinema, The Screen in the Green, and somewhere in Soho, maybe Berwick Street at the Oxford Street end. Used and I'd be surprised if they didn't have some classical music.


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

When did that happen? I was just there a year ago. How very, very sad. It was a landmark!


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## jegreenwood (Dec 25, 2015)

Mandryka said:


> I haven't been in it but I met someone who said that HMV on Oxford Street at Bond Street has been revamped and is thriving. I dare say they have some classical stock.
> 
> . . .


It was awful when I was there in the summer of 2016. Maybe improved since then.


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## bigboy (May 26, 2017)

I have a bit of live reporting from the ground: I just stopped by Gramex and it seems like someone broke into the Gramex store and punched a hole through their (brick!) wall to plunder the clothing shop next door. Needless to say it is a bit shaken up down there. I was also told that the building Gramex is in is slated for demolition, so the store may be only open for a few weeks more. I'm planning on stopping by later this week after things have settled down and perhaps "stocking up" so to speak. I'll be sure to write an update when I do.


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## GAJ (Oct 15, 2016)

Am I right in thinking that Beano's in Croydon has gone? If so, has it gone elsewhere?


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## bigboy (May 26, 2017)

I cut off work early on Tuesday, hopped on the tube and wandered into Gramex. I should say that if I sound a bit effusive in this report it is perhaps because I've never had this much fun in a record shop, but also because the future of the place seems a bit uncertain, and so gave my visit a bit of gravity that a stop by a store doesn't usually warrant.

It couldn't have been more than 3 minutes between when I entered the shop and when I had a cup of tea in my hand and was browsing amidst the cosy anarchy of the shop. There is no rhyme or reason to the stock or the organization other than that the proprietor (Roger) thought that someone might fancy some record in there and that the surest way to get people to buy more than they intended is to make them sift through a hundred records before finding the thing they first came in to find.

I spent maybe two hours in there sometimes browsing, sometimes eavesdropping on a lively conversation between Roger and a patron (who was more often than not a regular, but in either case treated with the same hearty welcome) and sometimes jumping in myself. The topic of conversation would wander amiably from Italian opera to Beethoven to Labour politics to gossip on the community of used book/record sellers and back to opera again, all the while exchanging light hearted jabs at one another.

I left having met quite a few people that I would love to sit down with again and have a good chinwag. Here's to hoping that Gramex will continue on and that I'll be able to spend quite a few more lazy afternoons among their stacks.


P.S. as I mentioned in an earlier post the building that Gramex is in is being torn down. Roger wants to continue the shop, but doesn't seem to have a new location lined up yet (although maybe he was just being coy about his plans). On the off chance that anyone reading this is deeply involved with London commercial retail I'm sure that they would be grateful to have some advice or insight into their situation.


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