Royce Radio

The shop sold second-hand radios, record players and radiograms (as they were called then). They also sold a lot of second-hand records as well, especially 45s. The shop was run by Mr Royce on his own, it did not belong to any group, he worked there till he died in his 80s.

Name: Paul Martin
Comment: An excellent website, thanks for putting this up, it brings back a lot of memories.

Royce Radio was situated near the bottom of Trafalgar Street. It was essentially a second-hand electronics shop that also sold a lot of second-hand records as well, especially 45s.

I am now wondering if it was owned by the same old grouch that used to own the original Record Album shop. The Royce Radio owner was a real grumpy old man (like the 'old gits' on the Fast Show series). My friend and I (when we were just 15) would always go in together, as he was too intimidating to be in there alone with! He would assume you were only after information (he seemed to know a lot of about records) rather than to buy anything. "You boys [meaning teens in general] only come in here to suck my brains," he would say. We did buy quite a lot from him actually and he would perk up then and volunteer titbits of information (like what the first British-released 45 was, etc). That was precious collecting information in the pre-digital, pre-Record Collector magazine days!
(8 May 2009)

Name: Derek Mann
Comment: I went to school with his son David Royce in the 1960s (I would think that is him in the photo, around 1966). He lived with his mum and dad above the shop. I lost touch in the early 1970s.
​(2022)