[GraDy]

So, I'm going to London with my family for a week. I assume that there must be some pretty good record shops in such a large city; my problem is that I have to find them. Both large megastore-style shops and smaller ones are OK.
Which ones do you like most?
Sorry if this isn't the right forum.

 

[mbhaub]

What genre?

 

[zumaro]

The big stores in the center are Virgin on Piccadilly Circus (used to be Tower Records and its right above the Picadilly Circus tube station), and HMV on Oxford Street (near Bond St station). There are other branches of HMV and Virgin on Oxford St, all of them being large. Actually the main Virgin store is on Oxford St come to think of it, but I like the classical section in their Picadilly store, so go there more often. All of them are good over a wide range of music.

The heaviest consumer district in London is basically the large area around Oxford and Regent Streets (which intersect at right angles to each other), with the electronic stores on Tottenham Court Rd being about as far along Oxford St that the diehard music fan needs to go. Warning - if you are coming from the States London will seem very expensive for music.

What kind of music are you looking for, because after these there are many specialist stores.

 

[Comrade Penguin]

The HMV between oxford circus and the tottenham court road is much larger than the one neat bond street and stocks a far larger range.

A good place to look is the shops on Berwick St (pretty much opposite the HMV mentioned above. Sister Ray is very good and cheap especially if your looking for vinyl but all those shops down that road are pretty decent though a few of them specalise to specific genres.

 

[GraDy]

Thanks for all the tips! I'm looking for CD's, and I mainly listen to Rock and Metal. Even here in taxland(Sweden), London is rumoured to be a pretty expensive town.I don't know if that just means that the situation is as bad as it is in Sweden, or that it's even worse
The tips so far should have me busy for a while, but please keep 'em coming!

 

[zumaro]

I was trying to remember which of the Oxford St HMVs was the big one - obvious enough when you are there and looking at it, but not from the other side of Europe! Anyway they are all close enough together, and if you are a London tourist I would imagine you will probably walk most of that area. I will have to check out more of the little shops in that region - you tend to get overwhelmed by the huge department stores, and never quite recover.

By the way Stockholm is such a beautiful city - I think I would rather holiday there!