Book and Record Bar

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Posted 2015-04-22 by Mike Whyte ⇒ follow

This one requires a little bit of effort, especially if you don't live in South London - but as always, it is worth the effort.

As you can see from the exterior of this building, the fact that I am telling you about a proper record store is not the only surprising thing here. But first...

Ten years ago you may have already been mourning the sad demise of the lowly record shop, as store after store, followed by chain after chain, slowly disappeared off city centre high streets. It seemed that the internet was winning and that music was confined to only being consumed through listening to tracks online, or purchasing downloads. During this time though a mini revolution was gaining momentum...

Some people refused to give up the feel of a disc, the artwork on the cover, or one of the things that give people of a certain age that little shiver of excitement, the picture disc - and it was these people that kept vinyl sales growing, despite the trend for mp3's being so popular.

Fast forward to now and you can see London is bringing back the record shop with a vengeance. Vinyl now comes (mostly) with mp3 download codes for that best-of-both-worlds experience, and shops like are being created and must be alllowed to thrive.

Taking over part of the premises of what used to be a pub, the sells all the essentials in life, beer, coffee, books and vinyl records. It is the vinyl records you should take particular notice of, as there are some real rarities to be found.

Also, if you can make it along to one of their events, you may find yourself actually getting involved - one of the events 'Get Stuck In', involves you playing three of your favourite tracks to the assembled throng.

Time to dig out that turntable again...