LONDON MUSIC SHOPS & STORES
London is known for being a shopping mecca, whether it’s clothes, shoes, jewellery, toys, home accessories, books or gadgets that take your fancy. Music stores are in abundance throughout London proper, and there is a diverse and well-stocked range of super-stores and well-kept secrets just waiting to be explored. No matter what your taste, London should have something to offer.
Rhythm Division is one of the world’s best for UK and US hip hop, dub, house and grime. Anything you can’t find in Rhythm Division should be hiding in the massive collection at Deal Real (off Carnaby Street), which is known for its widespread connections to the hip hop scene in London and the wider UK area. Sounds of the Universe offers a huge selection of world music, including Latin, African and jazz; whilst Rough Trade is internationally renowned for playing its part in the Punk movement that took London by storm in the seventies and eighties. Of interest to the tourists is the Virgin Megastore (now Zavvi) and HMV super-store, both along Oxford Street. These stores are packed to the rafters with popular releases but lack the more obscure finds that music-shoppers love to stumble across. Tower Records on Piccadilly Circus is also popular with the tourists.
If you are on holidays in London and consider yourself to be a big music fan, you can’t go past making a trip to Abbey Road Studios. Famous for the Beatles album cover and for the many successful recordings they made there, Abbey Road Studios has also played host to other incredibly successful artists such as Cliff Richard, U2, Pink Floyd, Oasis, Radiohead, The Killers, The Seekers, Gerry and the Pacemakers, and Panic at the Disco.