Comments
Dave Harwood
11 Dec 2023 at 10:12
I found this advert in the 'Lewisham Borough News' dated 6th May 1958: “The RECORD FORUM for CLASSICAL, POP and JAZZ RECORDS and SHEET MUSIC, Record Players, Tape Recorders, etc. 56 SYDENHAM ROAD, S.E.26 (opp. Woolworths). Open Fridays until 7.30 p.m.”
A-Z prev: The Record Exchange (London)
A-Z next: The Record Mart and T-Shirt Land
Name: Michael Vinner
Comment: The Record Forum opened in 1958 and became the record shop for Sydenham's late 1950s teens .Dayco's on the other side of the road - a combined toy shop/record shop - soon admitted defeat and concentrated on toys.
The Record Forum changed its name to Treble Clef in 1972; a couple of years after that I bought my first-ever record there - an LP I saved up my pocket money for a month to buy, Another Monty Python Record. In 1977 when Punk happened I remember they had a display of Punk single sleeves on the wall by the counter - not just the obvious Sex Pistols, Adverts etc but slightly more obscure ones like Chelsea, The Valves, The Drones and London. It seemed exciting at the time.
Treble Clef closed down in 1995 and the shop is now a car parts shop.
Name: Tony S
Comment: Record Forum became Treble Clef when the owner wanted to retire. He sold the business (which duly changed its name to Treble Clef), but retained ownership of the premises and continued to inhabit the accommodation above the shop.
For me (a teenager from mid-1970s to early 1980s) Roger at Treble Clef became a good friend. He could source some very obscure material with apparent ease; he opened a carefully controlled (zero scratches!) second-hand section sometime in the late 1970s; his was also the record shop prepared to return rejects to the record companies and complain until customers were served with good pressings (during the period in the late 1970s when some record labels seemed to think that recycled vinyl, even with bits of previous record's centre-labels in it was reasonable material to press full-price albums).
Name: Dave Stevenson
Comment: Living in Lower Sydenham this was my record buying destination in the 1960s. My mum used to work in the Granada cinema just down the road. As records were generally released on a Friday I would sometimes ask her to pop into the shop after Saturday morning pictures to pick up a new record for me. All my early Stones, Kinks and Who albums, which I still have, came from here.
(2023)