Suttons

Name: Michael Burford
Comment: Suttons of Southgate Street was a serious supplier of classical LPs with an informed shop assistant who pointed me in the right direction for my first records of (among others) Bruckner 9 (Horenstein - Vox) and Dvorak Cello Concerto (Casals)... now proven classics (as then.) There was basement browsing too! The shop was almost opposite the Southgate Hotel... but where precisely? Does anyone remember the number?
(2 July 2013)

Name: Dennis Alexander.
Comment: Whilst I never visited Suttons in Winchester I did regularly go to the Suttons in Shirley High Street in the mid 1970s (around where Holland & Barrat is now), it also sold hifi.

Comments

Ian Fairweather

06 Feb 2025 at 12:19

Although it has two listings here, Suttons in Salisbury was actually one store with two entrances. The one in Endless St was to the musical instruments emporium, whereas the one in Blue Boar Row - whilst also enabling access to the musical instruments (pianos mainly, I recall) led onto the stairs which led to the classical music section (at the rear), the 'pop' music section (fronting Blue Boar Row) and in between them, the sheet music section.
An ordering confusion in Suttons led me to hearing Iron Butterfly's In-a-Gadda-da-Vida for the first time, when it arrived in place of Fragile by Yes (both on Atlantic Records with similar catalogue numbers).
Suttons was also the only shop in Salisbury - being dominated by the Dean and Chapter of the Cathedral-in which it was possible to buy God Save the Queen by the Sex Pistols. Yes, I do have eclectic musical taste...

Sue Dorban

13 Apr 2025 at 08:49

My first job was in Suttobs, 421 Shirley Road, initially working for Shareen McDonald.
If I live to be 100 I will never have a better job. I just played and bought records.
I was still there in 1979 as a Saturday girl while studying at Southampton Tech College when it was briefly converted to a VHS video shop and we were all let go.

Piers Hemmingsen

09 Jul 2025 at 12:46

Thank you for posting. My family were expats from Canada living at Larkhill Military Camp July 1961 through August 1963. I was with my older brother on Easter weekend 1963 when he bought The Beatles' first LP, 'Please Please Me' (in stereo) at the Salisbury Suttons. My brother says he bought the LP at the 50 Blue Boar Row location but I thought it was around the corner on 3 Endless Street. To settle any dispute - which Salisbury Suttons location opened first - 3 Endless Street or 50 Blue Boar Row? Many thanks, Piers (Toronto, Canada)