Jones & Higgins

Comment: Peter Bauckham
Comment: Loved this department store. Record department was OK as I remember in the 1960s/1970s and I bought most of my records from here. Had three or four listening booths. I remember a rather grumpy elderly lady working there.

Name: Peter Le Faucheur
Comment: There was a caged parrot that would greet you as you entered this store. The record section was fairly good. Yes, the woman at the counter was a grump. Became The Houndsditch Centre I think later on in the 1980s.

Name: Steve
Comment: Remember looking through their album covers on a weekly basis in the late 1960s/early1970s, remember buying a few singles there as well including Manfred Mann's The Mighty Quinn.
(20 April 2014)

Name: Eve Kingston
Comment: I was a schoolgirl and remember Tony Blackburn opened the record store, and the bird was Morris, he was a mynah bird. Spent a lot of my youth in that record department.
(18 January 2015)

Name: Richard King
Comment: Stumbled across this site. I worked in the record department in the early 1970s. The grumpy old lady was Mrs Fearn, known as Ferny. She was the buyer and was very good at selecting the record stock. Christmas was manic. Back in the day, record tokens were very popular and the queue for them lasted nearly all day during the festive period. Remember the listening booths well and the Garrard record decks that provided the music. Picking CDs just doesn't come close to the joy of sorting through LPs.

Name: Malcolm Taylor
Comment: I have fond memories of using (and abusing!) this store, the record department of which was quite voluminous with booths for listening.

I was for a few years a Saturday Assistant in the public library in Peckham Hill Street and J&H became a haunt in my lunch hours there. There was another record shop at the end of Peckham Hill Street, opposite Manze's pie and mash emporium, but J&H was a step above with the shop assistants wearing suits and ties but with not a clue about the wares they were selling.

I don't ever remember buying anything in there but would spend every Saturday lunchtime listening before creeping out unseen. Or so I thought! I remember in 1971 or so going in every Saturday and playing Live Taste all the way through before departing. One fateful Saturday a big bloke blocked my escape and a manager called for to ban me from the shop. Fair cop, I guess.
(16 January 2017)

Name: Richard Cook
Comment: I have fond memories of the record department at Jones and Higgins and often went in there on my way home from school in the 1970s.
On one occasion there was a flood in the basement and as a result a lot of 1960s albums emerged at a discount price with no damage. I bought copies of Manfred Mann's As Is and Mighty Garvey. They had listening booths and also sold record players and hifi.

In the early 1980s, the record department transferred to the basement.
(2018)

Name: James Langley
Comment: I don't remember Mrs Fearne, but from early 1978 there was a very pleasant teenager named Chris working in the record department. She used to go to Bacon School in Pages Walk SE1. I bought lots of LPs at the time. There was another record shop half way up Rye Lane called Reeds very close to Bournemouth Road.
(2019)