# Classical record shops in London?



## GioCar (Oct 30, 2013)

I'll be in London for a couple of days in November, and MAYBE I'll have some spare time, MAYBE an entire afternoon (fingers crossed... ).
Any recommendations for a classical record shopping tour?
When I had spare time in London I used to to go to HMV in Oxford Street (now closed I believe) and Foyles (the bookstore) in Charing Cross Rd (they have a floor for music only), but I'd like to find something different, maybe smaller, dealing with used CDs and/or independent labels, easy & nice to browse. Hoping that this kind of stores still exists...

Thanks!


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## Triplets (Sep 4, 2014)

Harold Moore. Was still going strong last summer when I was there.


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## gHeadphone (Mar 30, 2015)

Gramex is a must visit. It near Waterloo station. Youll thank me!

Ive written about it in the past here http://www.talkclassical.com/37651-best-physical-locations-buy.html#post870774

www.gramex.co.uk


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## smarshal (Jul 19, 2015)

Harold Moore is a short walk from the new HMV on Oxford street and has a good browsing selection upstairs and a second hand section downstairs. The new HMV has a much smaller classical section but is worth a visit.


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## ptr (Jan 22, 2013)

gHeadphone said:


> Gramex is a must visit. It near Waterloo station. Youll thank me!


I second this!

/ptr


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## Nereffid (Feb 6, 2013)

ptr said:


> I second this!
> 
> /ptr


Thirded!

The combination of a wide range of reasonably priced discs and an entertaining chat (on non-musical topics) with the owner while browsing... just one of the nicest shopping experiences.


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## Bayreuth (Jan 20, 2015)

I shall thank you all too, since I'll be visiting London in the New Year (I'm going to a small New Year's Eve concert at St. Martin in the Fields, whose name alone sounds like Classical Music!). I will drop by those stores for sure


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## GioCar (Oct 30, 2013)

Thank you guys for all your recommendations!

Well, I've been in London in the last week and visited Gramex only. 
They recently moved downstairs leaving the streetfloor to a bookshop. The place now looks very different from the few pics still online. A quite unpleasant room (looks like a former storage room) equipped with an old kitchen on a side, no shelves, just 3-4 desks covered with random piles of CDs. Very few LPs. The owner greeted me but then left, and didn't come back.
I spent there more than one hour, I could not find anything really interesting. Moreover, a great number of CDs had the cases damaged.
The big impression was that of an imminent shut down...

If I'll have the chance, next time I'll try Harold Moore in Soho. If it'll be still existing...


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## ptr (Jan 22, 2013)

^^ Very sad news G!

/ptr


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## GioCar (Oct 30, 2013)

^^^ Yes indeed p!

Nowhere like there I felt we are truly some kind of endangered species...


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## Blancrocher (Jul 6, 2013)

On the bright side, it's easy to forget about the exchange rate while browsing a good English music store! Consider yourself lucky, GioCar!


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## James Murphy (Jun 3, 2016)

Sadly, Harold Moore's has now closed, too.


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## regnaDkciN (May 24, 2011)

Talk about a downer thread! I started off feeling a degree of optimism that, in a world capital like London, there were still classical stores to be found. (Here in Seattle, the number of ordinary CD stores with a decent -- and I don't mean spectacular -- selection of classical music can be counted on the fingers of one hand, and dropping fast.) By the time I reached the end of the thread, it would appear that we're an endangered species everywhere.

The only "silver lining" thought I had was that, even if physical stores are a vanishing breed, at least we still have sites like Presto, HDtracks, and Acoustic Sounds, where even those in far-off locations (the nearest music store of any type, even without a classical section, is a half-hour drive away) can find an enormous selection of classical music in CD quality or better, and even download it to their computer at any time of the day or night. But it certainly loses something of the atmosphere...


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