The Record Centre (Tooting)

Comments

Name: Mark Griffiths.
Comment: If I've got it right, this shop was to the left of the entrance of Tooting Broadway tube station. It was there right into the late 1980s and the interior was never changed. It was like a time warp in there!

Name: Baz
Comment: It was definitely there until the mid 1990s as I used to purchase at least one record from them every few weeks, before I left Tooting in around 1994 . Now it's a Starbucks :-(
(16 November 2014)

Robert Silverton

16 Sep 2023 at 09:45

I used to work at the Record Centre from 1973 to 1976. Frank Sherwood was the manager when I started there but sadly he died a year later. Jan Greenhead took over and was still the manager when I left. The pay was rubbish. Nevertheless I had some great times there and made a great many friends.

Dave Harwood

18 Feb 2024 at 10:03

I found this advert in the 'Streatham News' dated 28th August 1964: “NOW OPEN! THE RECORD CENTRE (BALham 1699) 2, MITCHAM ROAD (Next door to Tooting Broadway Underground). THE BEST SELECTION OF RECORDS AND ACCESSORIES IN SOUTH LONDON! Come and browse around our modern showroom equipped with individual listening facilities and everything to make record buying a pleasure! ALL THE LATEST POPS IN STOCK TOGETHER WITH A GOOD SELECTION OF CLASSICAL AND POPULAR L.Ps. ALSO CONTINENTAL, AFRICAN AND WEST INDIAN MUSIC.”
… along with this piece on the same page:
“LONDON'S newest record centre, which has just opened in Tooting, claims to have about 8,000 records in stock and normally to be able to supply any difficult-to-get record within 24 hours. The Record Centre is in Mitcham Road, next to Tooting Broadway Underground station.”

Dave Harwood

20 Feb 2024 at 03:04

I remember waiting one evening to meet my girlfriend at Tooting Broadway tube station in the late 1960s and passed the time looking in The Record Centre's window display next door. My eye was drawn to a colourful, psychedelic LP album cover of a band called Rainbow Ffolly, but the shop was closed so there was no chance to hear it or find out more about the band. I never did get around to buying it on vinyl, but eventually heard the songs of Rainbow Ffolly when I bought the 1998 'See For Miles' CD release of their only album, plus a bonus b-side of their only single.