The earliest entry for the shop is in the 1971 directory where it is shown as being at 123 Stafford Road, Wallington. In 1981 it is shown as being located at 121 Stafford Road, Wallington. My friend and I were not aware that it had moved during its lifespan. My friend regularly visited the shop in the late 1970's so we believe it moved to no.121 before 1981 during the late 70's. The final entry given is in 1985. This could be the year of it's closure but I have a feeling it stayed open for a couple of more years. I think I last visited it in 1987. It closed when the cd started to be widely available. I visited the shop a number of times when it started to have a closing down sale of all its stock and heard the owner say he'd decided to give up the business because of the growing popularity of the cd. The shop only sold brand new vinyl and cassettes. The shop owner was a wonderful knowledgeable and helpful gentleman. Anything you wanted which he didn't have in stock he said he could get for you if you were prepared to wait.
The shop was a real pleasure to visit. It was always clean and tidy with all the stock neatly stacked. As you entered the shop there were racks on the left hand side and alongside the shop front window. The counter was on the right hand side and there was an archway next to it leading to another little display area. My friend recalls that it had a listening booth with ear phones but this wasn't there when I started to visit the shop in 1983. We now wonder how the owner made much money from his business because you would only see about 3 other customers within the shop. It was located in a long row of shops outside Wallington town centre. I remember subsequently trading in some of the albums I had purchased from the shop and was told they were now deleted editions and no longer widely available, so I got a good price for them.
Steve Mills
Comment
I bought my very first Extended Play record from them in August 1962 - Elvis’ Follow That Dream. The owner was very friendly and offered a great selection of records. It wasn’t a shop I went to very often until I got my own car as it was away from the main shopping area of Wellington.
Landaus of Sutton was my main record store that I went to, although there was one up the road at Rosehill. Cannot remember the name but the owner used to let me help out during lunchtimes whilst on school lunch break. They had a loudspeaker built in over the front door and my biggest memory was the Friday when The Beatles "Can’t Buy Me Love" was released in March ‘64 - the owner just kept on playing both sides virtually back to back. Magical times.
Name
Mike Lodge
Comment
I remember this shop well as I lived in Carew Road , great shop one of a kind and the Gentleman was always friendly.
Name
Paul Clark
(2021)
Comments
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