Bell Hill Cassettes it was in a former theatre – or maybe a temperance hall? I've never found out – with a red lion sitting on the top. The building's still there. It should have a blue plaque, of course. I discovered it in 1978, when it seemed to be operating under two names, as both Bell Hill Cassettes and Beano's. It was huge. They had a blackboard on the wall with their best-selling re-issues – I remember Fleetwood Mac's Albatross being in the Top 20, and some wag had spelt it Albert Ross. The staff, of course, were all forbidding. At this point I was thirteen, and scared of everything. Bob Stanly (2020)
Comment
I visited Bell Hill Cassettes, Bell Hill, Croydon, when it was in a state of transition to being called Beanos. I bought second-hand copies of the first three Planxty albums on vinyl, the most recent of which was first issued in 1974, so my visit would have to have been later than that date. I remember seeing David Lashmar's wife in the shop but I'm not sure if she served me. The next time I went back they had moved the short distance to Surrey Street and were definitely called Beanos then.
Name
Dave Harwood
(2022)
