Dobell's & Ray's

[sidewinder]

Not to forget that the remnants of  Asmans, after it closed, occupied the upstairs at Mole in later years. Saturday afternoons seemed to have (at least when I was there) a regular vintage jazz listening/critique session on the upstairs deck courtesy of 'mouldy figge' regulars.

The last time I was there though the Asmans desk was bare and the record deck was bust. 

Also not forgetting 'All Change Records', next door to Sherlock Holmes's place on Baker St. They sort of morphed into Mole around 1978...

There was also that interesting avant-garde jazz shop near Neal St (pretty sure JohnS posted about this a while back), which didn't seem to last that long. Last time I passed the spot where I think it was located it looked to be a top end hairdressing salon. 

8 hours ago, JohnS said:

Don't forget Honest Jon''s shop just opposite Rays in St Martins Lane.  

The Camden Town store was my favourite - absolutely packed with good stuff. Jazz & reggae was their thing.

Edited November 25, 2015 by sidewinder

[Big Beat Steve]

1 hour ago, Jazzjet said:

I'm not sure I remember that store. You're sure it wasn't Foyles? Doesn't really fit with your description but it certainly had a lot of music books. Before its makeover (1980s?) it was ruled with an eccentric rod of iron by Christina Foyle. Most bizarre was its payment system which is accurately described in Wikipedia :

'The shop operated a payment system that required customers to queue three times: to collect an invoice for a book, to pay the invoice, then to collect the book, simply because sales staff were not allowed to handle cash. Equally mystifying to customers was a shelving arrangement that categorized books by publisher, rather than by topic or author. A quote of this period is: "Imagine if Kafka had gone into the book trade." In the 1980s a rival bookshop placed an advertisement in a bus shelter opposite Foyles: "Foyled again? Try Dillons".

No, it definitely was not Foyle's. I did shop at Foyle's during my stays in '75, 75 and 77 and a.o. bought Ross Russell's "Bird Lives" as well as Bill C. Malone's "Country Music USA" there. Not sure that I was stumped by the way they arranged their books because I remember I had no trouble finding these two books coming from totally different publishers (and was very pleased with my finds, particular with the latter which I had perused at the local Amerika Haus library prior to that trip). But now that you quote it I seem to remember that multiple queuing before taking away the books and heading down in their rattletrap elevator.

Overall Foyl'es hadn't changed that much when I went there again throughout the 90s.

The shop I mentoined above (possibly on Regent Street) was totally different - huge, much more modern sales area on the ground floor. No multiple stories to the best of my recollections.

[BillF]

10 hours ago, ornette said:

 

After I moved out of London I always visited Mole (both shops) whenever I wangled a trip down for a meeting or to attend a course.

 

 

Know what you mean. My trips to visit students on work placements in London always ended up in Tower Records!

[sidewinder]

Yep, I remember the Kafka-esque queuing and paying system at the old Foyles. Which is by I used to buy most of my books at Dillons (now another branch of Waterstones).

I remember that archaic elevator too !

[JohnS]

We found this system of payment in Shanghai not too long ago.  Years ago I recall many shops having a system of wires or pneumatic tubes for sending cash to the cashier.

[BillF]

12 hours ago, sidewinder said:

Yep, I remember the Kafka-esque queuing and paying system at the old Foyles. Which is by I used to buy most of my books at Dillons (now another branch of Waterstones).

I remember that archaic elevator too !

It was well know that the eccentric and penny-pinching Christina Foyle severely restricted the number of staff who had access to cash. Hence the queueing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foyles

[BillF]

http://web.archive.org/web/20070313031809/http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=298513

[sidewinder]

2 hours ago, BillF said:

It was well know that the eccentric and penny-pinching Christina Foyle severely restricted the number of staff who had access to cash. Hence the queueing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foyles

The place sort of reminded me of that Gringotts Bank in Harry Potter !

[Big Beat Steve]

11 minutes ago, sidewinder said:

The place sort of reminded me of that Gringotts Bank in Harry Potter !

NOW I know why Gringott's struck me as so unmistakably British and why I felt I had experienced that atmosphere myself before!

That said, I cannot complain about the depth of their stocks. My hit rate during my stopovers there in the 90s was comparatively high.

[A Lark Ascending]

Foyles was still eccentric right up to its move in the last year or so (although it abandoned the 'take book to counter/get a chit/take chit to another counter and pay/get a chit to be checked against your passport at a local police station/return with police authorisation/get a chit and go back to the original desk (if you can remember where it was and if you are lucky enough for it to be still there)/collect book and decide you don't want it any more' approach a long while back [Kafka-esque describes the procedure perfectly]). I remember books piled everywhere.

It's much more contemporary now, not much different to Waterstones. Still well stocked - the history section is still filled with things you wouldn't see in most book shops. 

[Jazzjet]

22 hours ago, A Lark Ascending said:

Foyles was still eccentric right up to its move in the last year or so (although it abandoned the 'take book to counter/get a chit/take chit to another counter and pay/get a chit to be checked against your passport at a local police station/return with police authorisation/get a chit and go back to the original desk (if you can remember where it was and if you are lucky enough for it to be still there)/collect book and decide you don't want it any more' approach a long while back [Kafka-esque describes the procedure perfectly]). I remember books piled everywhere.

It's much more contemporary now, not much different to Waterstones. Still well stocked - the history section is still filled with things you wouldn't see in most book shops. 

Whatever happened to Borders in Oxford Street? That was an enormous shop but it closed about 6 or 7 years ago (?). I can only assume it was caused by some corporate upheaval. I did come across a very good book shop in London a few years ago - Daunt's in Marylebone.

[A Lark Ascending]

Borders went under everywhere. They had one in Leeds and another in a retail park in Leicester just off the M1. I remember them as treasure troves when first opened but they seemed to replace stock rarely so after a period of time they were quite random. Good for books beyond Britain and American magazines (I bought Downbeat and Jazz Times for a few years).

There was a borders on Charing Cross Road as well, just up from Foyles on the other side of the road. Might be where there is huge hole in the ground at present as they redo Tottenham, Court Road Tube Station and the surrounding area.  

[sidewinder]

Yep, Borders was just opposite the site of the old Foyles and slightly up. Good for jazz books and periodicals. The one in Bournmouth was nice as well - sadly it went under around the same time.

[Jazzjet]

14 hours ago, A Lark Ascending said:

Borders went under everywhere. They had one in Leeds and another in a retail park in Leicester just off the M1. I remember them as treasure troves when first opened but they seemed to replace stock rarely so after a period of time they were quite random. Good for books beyond Britain and American magazines (I bought Downbeat and Jazz Times for a few years).

There was a borders on Charing Cross Road as well, just up from Foyles on the other side of the road. Might be where there is huge hole in the ground at present as they redo Tottenham, Court Road Tube Station and the surrounding area.  

I'd forgotten about the Borders on Charing Cross Road. I used to visit there quite a bit and usually ended up in the coffee shop. It's strange that nowadays book shops are inextricably linked with coffee shops. Grabbing a book from the shelves and enjoying a Grande Cappuccino is one of life's more civilised pleasures.

I've just remembered that there was a good music book shop just round the corner on Denmark Street, called Helter Skelter (now closed by the look of it). I grabbed quite a few bargains there.

[A Lark Ascending]

23 minutes ago, Jazzjet said:

I'd forgotten about the Borders on Charing Cross Road. I used to visit there quite a bit and usually ended up in the coffee shop. It's strange that nowadays book shops are inextricably linked with coffee shops. Grabbing a book from the shelves and enjoying a Grande Cappuccino is one of life's more civilised pleasures.

I've just remembered that there was a good music book shop just round the corner on Denmark Street, called Helter Skelter (now closed by the look of it). I grabbed quite a few bargains there.

Yes, I like coffee shops in bookshops too (even if they are largely chain controlled now). The first one I recall going to was a great bookshop in Dingle on the West Coast of Ireland at the start of the '80s. Oodles of books (many in Gaelic!), Irish folk LPs (I had to be very sparing as I only had panniers on a bike for carriage!) and then a nice coffee shop. They seemed to sweep in during the 80s.

I'm not much of a fan of second hand book shops (nor CD record shops...I'm IKEA man!) but there's a great one in Cromford in Derbyshire called Scarthin Books which has a nice, pokey, non-franchised coffee shop. Great after a walk. 

I liked Helter Skelter, too. Before the net made everything available it was a marvellous concentration of books on popular music.