The first expat from Australia has sent me in some photographs of Sterns when it was in Whitfield Place W1. Thanks to Steve.  Also Alan Bafour from sound of the world sent me a cutting from 'Good Noise'  of Russell's Hot  Record Store LTD.  This shop employed ten people, if you add up all the thousands shops that once traded.  This would have run into thousands of employees and not to mention the support businesses.  Thinking about it  music retail would have been one of the more pleasurable jobs in retail.  

What a brilliant website – I’m having a big clear out at home, so if I find anything useful I’ll definitely send it on….I used to keep record bags from loads of shops, but suspect many were lost when I moved from Hackney….something like this is long overdue, I think the fella behind it deserves immense credit….after all, he’s preserving part of our popular culture….ahh now lets see, top 5 record shops (bear in mind it’s been about 16 years since I last bought vinyl):-

1) P + J Records, Narrow Way, Mare St., Hackney
2) Bluebird Records, Berwick Street, Soho 

Hello and welcome to the British Record Shop Archive.

The basic idea of the archive is now up and attracting lots of interest.  Lots of people love the idea and now after checking all the pages and links it is time to start the blog. In time the design layout and content structure will change once I have the resources to do so.  In the mean time the site is gathering information and imagines which will go to create an archive of some stature. 
  
Thanks to all those you have left comments and sent me images via email keep them coming.

Leon.