London still has dozens of independent record shops, concentrated in three places: Soho around Berwick Street, west London around Portobello Road, and the east around Brick Lane. Several of them will post a box of records to your home address, which is worth knowing before you try to fly with thirty kilos of vinyl.
Our guide to Soho mentions the Berwick Street shops in passing, and second-hand shopping in London covers the wider trade. This page is for people who came to dig: which shops, which genres, how the pricing works and how to get the records home without paying twice their value in excess baggage.
Prices in London are not cheap by international standards. What London has is depth, particularly in reggae, jazz, soul, dance music and British independent labels, and a handful of shops that have been buying collections in the same neighbourhood for forty years.
Where to dig, by area
- Soho
- Berwick Street and the streets around it; new releases, dance, second-hand
- Denmark Street
- The old music-publishing street, east of Soho
- Notting Hill
- Portobello Road and Talbot Road; reggae, soul, jazz, world music
- East London
- Brick Lane and Bethnal Green Road; new releases, in-store gigs
- North London
- Islington and Crouch End; second-hand depth
- King's Cross
- Coal Drops Yard, one specialist branch
- Finding more
- The Record Store Day UK store locator lists participating independents
Soho: Berwick Street and around
Berwick Street was the centre of the London record trade for decades, and although most of the shops have gone, two of the important ones remain a few doors apart.
Reckless Records, at 30 Berwick Street, has been buying and selling vinyl and CDs on this street since 1984. It buys collections every week, which means the second-hand racks turn over constantly and the stock is genuinely different from one visit to the next. It opens 10:00 to 19:00 every day, which makes it the easiest shop in this guide to fit into a day.
Sister Ray, at 75 Berwick Street, has been in Soho for around thirty years and leans more towards new releases, reissues and independent labels, with a strong second-hand section. It is one of the shops that takes Record Store Day seriously, with a queue down the street on the day itself.
Both are a minute from the lanes covered in our guide to Carnaby Street and Soho shopping, so a record-digging morning and a clothes-shopping afternoon fit in the same square quarter-mile. Soho also has specialist shops for dance music and for soul and jazz reissues in the surrounding streets; the doorways are unmarked and worth pushing open.
Berwick Street is also the Oasis album cover. The sleeve of (What's the Story) Morning Glory? was photographed on this street, which is why people stand in the middle of it taking pictures. The shops are used to it.
Photo: Lindelljones · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons · resized
Denmark Street: the trade's old address
Denmark Street, a short row east of Soho by Tottenham Court Road, was the centre of British music publishing and is still lined with instrument shops. Rough Trade returned to the area in 2024 with a branch here, on the grounds that the street is where the British music industry began.
If you play as well as collect, this is the street for guitars, keyboards and strings, and the shops expect you to try things.
West London: Portobello and Talbot Road
Honest Jon's, at 278 Portobello Road, has been trading since 1974 and is the serious shop for reggae, jazz, soul, blues, folk and music from outside the Anglo-American mainstream. It runs its own record label as well. It opens Monday to Saturday from 10:00 to 18:00 and Sunday from 11:00 to 17:00. There is a second branch in Coal Drops Yard at King's Cross, open 11:00 to 18:00 from Monday to Saturday and 11:00 to 17:00 on Sunday.
Rough Trade West, on Talbot Road just off Portobello Road, is the original shop, opened in 1976, and the smallest of the chain. It is a single room and it is the one Rough Trade branch that still feels like a 1970s record shop.
Both sit inside the area covered by our guides to Notting Hill and Portobello Road Market. Saturday is market day and the street is packed; Friday and Tuesday are far better for actually looking through racks.
East London: Brick Lane and Bethnal Green Road
Rough Trade East, in the Old Truman Brewery just off Brick Lane, is the chain's flagship: around 5,000 square feet of vinyl, with books, merchandise, a photo booth and a bar, and live in-store events every day of the week. Those gigs are usually free or very cheap and are one of the best ways to see a band you have not heard of; our guide to live music venues in London covers the ticketed alternatives.
Flashback Shoreditch, at 131 Bethnal Green Road at the top of Brick Lane, opened in 2014 across two floors, with a basement given over to soul, jazz and reggae and regular in-store gigs upstairs.
Both are a few minutes from the markets in our guide to Old Spitalfields and Brick Lane, and from the streets described in our Shoreditch page. Sunday is the busiest day in this area by a long way.
North London: the second-hand depth
Flashback Islington, at 50 Essex Road, has been there since 1997. New vinyl, CDs and DVDs on the ground floor, and a basement of second-hand and collectors' records that is the reason people come. Flashback Crouch End, at 26 Topsfield Parade on Tottenham Lane, opened in 2006 and moved to a larger shop in 2021.
Neither is central, and that is the point: the stock comes from north London collections rather than from a wholesaler. Our neighbourhood guides to Islington and to Highgate and Crouch End cover what else is worth an afternoon in each.
Charity shops across north and east London also turn up records, although the best items are increasingly pulled for online sale; see our guide to charity shops in London. The stalls at Camden Market are worth a look, with the usual market caveat that condition is variable and prices are aimed at visitors.
How to dig without annoying anybody
- Ask before you play. Most second-hand shops have a deck behind the counter and will let you hear a record before you buy. Ask; do not reach over.
- Learn the grading. British shops use the standard abbreviations: M for mint, NM or EX for near mint or excellent, VG+ for very good plus, VG, G for good, which in this system means fairly worn. The price assumes the grade on the sleeve is accurate.
- Two grades, not one. A record graded "EX/VG" means the disc is excellent and the sleeve is very good. Check which way round it is.
- Check the disc in the light. Tilt it towards the window and look across the surface for scuffs and heat warp.
- Put things back where they came from. The filing is the shop's inventory system.
- Do not haggle on single records. On a stack of ten or more, asking whether there is anything to be done on the total is normal.
Getting the records home
This is where most visitors come unstuck. Twenty LPs weigh roughly five kilograms with sleeves, and a full box is more than most airlines allow in the cabin. Three approaches:
| Method | Works when | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Hand luggage | Up to about ten records | Weight limits; records are fine through the scanner |
| Checked baggage | A medium haul, packed flat in the middle of the case | Warping in a hot hold; pack records vertically, never at an angle |
| Shop ships them | Anything more than a box | Ask about duty and handling charges at your end |
Several London shops post internationally. Honest Jon's is registered with the European Union's Import One-Stop Shop, which means customers in EU countries pay no additional VAT, duty or handling fee on arrival; that is unusual and it makes a real difference to the final cost. Rough Trade, Sister Ray and Flashback all operate mail order as well. Ask in the shop whether they will pack and send your pile rather than assuming you have to carry it.
If you are carrying records home yourself, they count against your customs allowance for goods like anything else; our page on UK customs allowances explains the British rules and your own country will have its own.
Ask the shop to ship, even for a modest pile. Postage on a box of records is often less than an airline's excess baggage charge, and the box arrives flat, in proper mailers, with the sleeves undamaged. It also means you can keep digging on the last day of your trip instead of calculating your luggage allowance.
Selling, and Record Store Day
Several of these shops buy as well as sell. Reckless buys collections every week and travels to see large ones. Flashback advertises for records, CDs and DVDs. If you live in Britain and are clearing a collection, that is the route; as a visitor it is mostly useful to know, because it is why the second-hand racks change so fast.
Record Store Day is the trade's annual event, when participating independents get exclusive pressings and the queues start before dawn. The UK organisation runs a store locator that is the most complete list of independent record shops in the country, and it is the best way to find the shops this page has no room for. Check the date before planning around it: the exclusives sell out within the first hour and the shops are not pleasant places to browse that day.
For listening rather than buying, our guides to jazz in London and free live music cover where the same records get played live.
Frequently asked questions
Where are the best record shops in London?
Berwick Street in Soho for the highest concentration, Portobello Road and Talbot Road in Notting Hill for reggae, jazz and soul, the Old Truman Brewery off Brick Lane for new releases and in-store gigs, and Essex Road in Islington for second-hand depth. Each is a short walk from other things worth doing.
Which London record shops ship internationally?
Most of the established shops run mail order. Honest Jon's is registered with the EU Import One-Stop Shop, so EU customers pay no extra VAT, duty or handling on delivery. Rough Trade, Sister Ray and Flashback also post abroad. Ask at the counter about shipping your purchases rather than carrying them.
Can you take vinyl records in hand luggage?
Yes. Records are not restricted items and pass through the scanner normally. The limit is weight and size: twenty LPs weigh about five kilograms, which uses most of a cabin allowance. For anything larger, pack them flat in checked baggage or have the shop post them.
Are records expensive in London?
New vinyl is priced much as it is across western Europe. Second-hand prices vary enormously by shop and neighbourhood, and the central Soho shops are not the cheapest. The north and east London shops generally offer better value for used records, because their stock comes from local collections.
What does VG+ mean on a second-hand record?
Very Good Plus, a grade below Near Mint: the record has been played and shows light marks, but should sound clean. Grades are usually given twice, as disc over sleeve, so "EX/VG" means an excellent disc in a more worn cover. Ask to hear anything you are unsure about.
Sources
- Reckless Records - address, hours and history (checked September 2026)
- Sister Ray - Berwick Street shop details (checked September 2026)
- Honest Jon's Records - Portobello Road and Coal Drops Yard, hours and EU shipping (checked September 2026)
- Rough Trade - UK stores: East, West and Denmark Street (checked September 2026)
- Flashback Records - Islington, Shoreditch and Crouch End branches (checked September 2026)
- Record Store Day UK - store locator and participating shops (checked September 2026)
- GOV.UK - Bringing goods into the UK for personal use (checked September 2026)