In 1920 – two years after the end of the 1914-18 War and when he was 20 years old - Edward set up shop at 2 The Parade, Stroud Green Road, London. It was one shop up from the corner of Wells terrace.
From the shop, he sold records and sheet music (lyrics with music for home performance) and lent and sold books.For the first few years a friend's father a Mr. Hemming assisted with financing – hence his name over the shop front – but by 1923 Edward was sole proprietor. His sister Grace helped run the shop and did the accounts. She told her son Stuart that if a customer ever asked for a book that they did not have in stock, Edward would set off on his bicycle and scour London for it to satisfy the customer – at no extra charge.
The shop soon had a reputation of being rather bohemian – with intellectual but informal discussions held in a back room on subjects ranging from politics to theosophy. Christine (Edward's sister in law) still remembers how "he served coffee with brown sugar and other exotic delicacies from Musson's shop". (Tom Musson – vegetarian stores was at 19 Stroud Green Road.)
Occasionally Nat Gonella (English jazz trumpeter, bandleader, vocalist and mellophonist) visited the shop. Sometime in the 1930s Betty Smith discovered the shop and became a frequent visitor and on 27 June 1940 she married Edward.
On 7 September 1940, a year after the start of the 1939-45 War, the Germans started bombing raids on London and on the night of Sunday 29 September 1940 the shop and several adjacent properties were totally destroyed. Edward had then been in business for twenty years but all that he and his brother-in-law Noel managed to salvage was some records and books – including some records and sleeves.
In February 1949, Edward received £128.15s.9d in compensation for the losses from the Government Board of Trade.
