Vinyl is having a serious moment in the UK — the market is forecast to pull in around £220 million in 2026 — and London remains the best city in the country to go digging. This is the city that produced The Clash, Amy Winehouse, Led Zeppelin, Dizzee Rascal and Stormzy, and its record shop scene is thriving rather than shrinking.

Soho alone justifies an afternoon. Sounds of the Universe on Broadwick Street doubles as the home of the Soul Jazz label and pulls in imports from Japan, Brazil and Jamaica — reggae, funk, house and latin heads, start here. A few streets away, Phonica has been dance music's HQ since 2003, stocking everything from techno to Four Tet and Peggy Gou, plus turntable parts and vinyl cleaning kit; in-store DJ sets can turn a browse into an impromptu rave. Sister Ray on Berwick Street, going thirty years strong, keeps an all-vinyl basement — and yes, you can recreate the Oasis (What's The Story) Morning Glory? cover outside. There's also Fopp in Covent Garden for cheap vinyl, CDs, arthouse DVDs and alt-culture books.

East London is where the specialists cluster. World of Echo — named after the Arthur Russell album — moved to Cheshire Street near Brick Lane and is the spot for krautrock, post-punk and cassettes. Crypt of the Wizard on Hackney Road is a gloriously all-black temple to metal, complete with a leather sofa and coffee from Dark Arts roasters. Kristina Records, now in Homerton, covers techno, jungle, UK garage and electro with a famously un-snooty welcome. Stranger Than Paradise in Hackney Market hand-picks every LP (note: closed Fridays), and Rough Trade's Brick Lane flagship still stages live gigs — the brand signed The Smiths back in 1983. Flashback meanwhile is quietly expanding, with branches in Islington, Shoreditch and Crouch End; the Essex Road basement is a rarities rummage worth an hour.

North and west have their heroes too. One Eighty One on Holloway Road, founded by party stalwart Rod 'Spin Doctor' Gilmore, combines records with coffee, wine and a community calendar of comedy, chess and run clubs. Honest Jon's has held court on Portobello Road since 1974 and remains a crate-digger's dream for jazz, reggae and soul. In Camden's Stables Market, UMusic mixes vinyl with merch — Bon Jovi dropped in before a recent Wembley show. And out in Kingston upon Thames, Banquet Records punches far above its weight: blink-182, Wolf Alice, Charli XCX and Jamie T have all played in-stores there.

Why it matters: a record shop crawl is one of the cheapest, most weather-proof ways to spend a day in London, and it threads you through Soho, Shoreditch, Camden and Portobello — neighbourhoods worth visiting anyway. Serious collectors should pick two or three specialist stores and go deep; casual browsers can happily string together four or five central London stops in a single afternoon.

Via Condé Nast Traveller UK.