( Feb 24, 2016) I’ll never forget the first time I discovered Knights record shop in the early 1970’s. Having cut through M&S to get into the Whitgift Centre my attention was immediately caught by the most awkwardly shaped shop unit you could imagine. It was long and narrow but the side of it fronted the shopping centre with the entrance door on the right. Really strange, like it had been stuck on as an afterthought. I found a couple of Capitol albums in the reduced rack that I hadn’t got – Steve Miller Band’s ‘Your Saving Grace’ and Seatrain’s ‘Marblehead Messenger’ and went home very pleased. Dave Harwood
I found these comments on recent Bygone Croydon Facebook pages about record shops:
20th January 2014:
Sharon Anne King: “Knights opposite Boots in the Whitgift Centre.”
11th May 2013:
Darren M Gomes: “My personal favourite was Knights, in the Whitgift Centre.”
And these two from a cpfc.org forum thread about the Whitgift Centre dated 2006:
“...that narrow little record shop and the sweet shop next door that was opposite where Boots is now.”
21 August 2013-Rockin' and Around Croydon
Chris Groom: “There was a small record outlet in the Whitgift Centre - not big enough to call it a shop! Mid-seventies, long and narrow, glass fronted, with barely room for three or four people at a time. Can't remember the name unfortunately...”
This response informs him that it was indeed Knights:
21 August 2013
Vivanne Leonard: “Chris Groom - that was Knights”
21 August 2013
Sarah Jerrard-Adams: “Knights was right up near the entrance to M and S and Boots, it was a tiny narrow shop.”
21 August 2013
Nick Storey: “I remember there being a small record shop downstairs in the Whitgift Centre opposite Boots - very narrow place. I bought Hunky Dory there for £1.99.”
Comment
I was the record buyer for Knights in the Whitgift Centre for most of the 70s until the whole firm was taken over by NSS. It was indeed a strange shape and was sort of carved out of the front of M&S. But did we shift some records! I knew that if customers started to ask for a single in quantities that it would be a hit in the UK, and this shop was always a couple of weeks ahead of our other shops in the Thames Valley, about a month ahead of our Plymouth branch. It was great having a separate record department, not mixed in with the news and sweets like the other shops in the chain. I always loved working there, and one Christmas we did excep tional business and it was great fun.
Name
Simon Gee
(2018)
Comment
I had a Saturday job in the newsagent part of the shop.
Between 1977-1978. I used to get great discounts on my records! Big orange squares outlined the top of the shops.
Name
Sharon Buckley
(2021)
