Denmark Street, London.

[Loomer]

Alright, so...

The missus and I are heading to London for a holiday at the end of January. I figured, that I might as well see Denmark Street there, while I was at it. What shops are worth visiting? Are they as absurdly overpriced with all the secondhand stuff as I've heard? What pitfalls should I avoid?

Any of the natives wanna meet up for a pint?  :P

[jpfamps]

Alright, so...

The missus and I are heading to London for a holiday at the end of January. I figured, that I might as well see Denmark Street there, while I was at it. What shops are worth visiting? Are they as absurdly overpriced with all the secondhand stuff as I've heard? What pitfalls should I avoid?

Any of the natives wanna meet up for a pint?  :P

I repair amps at Angel Music (1st floor above Macaris). Feel free to drop in (and go the pub!).

[Alex]

You'de probably be through all stores in around 20 minutes; most of them are small and overcrowded with stuff. Lots of it is not very competitively priced, but they sometimes have some gread second hand deals.

I must say my experience with the staff working there, especially in the non-vintage guitar orientated stores, have been rather unpleasant. So I'd say, avoid talking to the guitar sales people. The drum sales people are much nicer (again, my experience).

[Stevepage]

Wunjo, Vintage and Rare and Angel Music. The others will either make you fed up of the lack of service/rudeness of the staff or make you leave feeling that it was a bit of a waste of time.

[Andrew W]

Wunjo, Vintage and Rare and Angel Music. The others will either make you fed up of the lack of service/rudeness of the staff or make you leave feeling that it was a bit of a waste of time.

What he said.

[FernandoDuarte]

Wow! Just looked their websites and Angel Music has some awesome weird guitar really cheap (at least seems to me who know nothing about them). Like a Supro or a Silvertone with case-and-amp-at-same-time for less than £600..

[38thBeatle]

I haven't been up that way for ages-and I mean ages. It was fun years ago but even then a bit overpriced in parts. I must get around to it as I have yet to go to London with my son to show him around.

[Sancho]

I went to Denmark Street on my first visit to London in 2008.
Wasn't impressed really. Overpriced, for one.
What I did notice is that all stores seem to be "themed". There was the obvious metal store, the blues store, the budget store that had nothing but the Vintage brand... I guess if you're going to have all shops in the same street, specialising is the way to go.

[Elliot]

I think the stores appeared themed because they were all owned by the Harrisons of the Music Ground empire - with the exception of the aforementioned V&R, Angel and Wunjo pretty much all the other shops were one big monopoly.  It may be interesting to see what happens in the future now that empire has collapsed.

Personally, I can't stand any of the shops except V&R and Wunjo (not really tried Angel but they seem good guys when I visited JPF) - I went into Hanks a few weeks ago to buy a slide and was given one that was way too big for my finger.  When I asked for a smaller size I got some cr@p about 'when your fingers are sweating in a gig you'll need one this size'.  This was just Guitar Shop w**ker speak for 'we don't have one smaller in stock, but we are going to pretend we know better than you to make you buy this one'.  I guess it works with 95% of people.       

[Loomer]

Hmmm, seems to be the same story all 'round. Guess I'll just stick to checking out Wunjo guitars and that place where Jfpamps works, and leave it at that. Can anyone tell me how far away Feline Guitars is from the City center?

[Philly Q]

Can anyone tell me how far away Feline Guitars is from the City center?

It's probably the best part of 10 miles as the crow flies, but you can get a train to Croydon from Victoria or London Bridge which takes about 15-30 minutes depending on which route you take.

There are three stations in Croydon - East, West and South Croydon - all in walking distance from Feline Guitars.  I usually go to East Croydon, which probably also has the best and quickest train service from cental London.

[FELINEGUITARS]

Can anyone tell me how far away Feline Guitars is from the City center?

It's probably the best part of 10 miles as the crow flies, but you can get a train to Croydon from Victoria or London Bridge which takes about 15-30 minutes depending on which route you take.

There are three stations in Croydon - East, West and South Croydon - all in walking distance from Feline Guitars.  I usually go to East Croydon, which probably also has the best and quickest train service from cental London.

What Philly Said.......

Victoria - East Croydon is 17 minutes on a fast train
London bridge - East Croydon is 15 minutes on a fast train
You can use Charing Cross but you have to just get a train to LOndon Bridge and change there for East Croydon

I tend like Philly to use East Croydon as it has more services going there
The walk from East Croydon is about 10 minutes or 3 stops on a bus (119/466/312)

We are a custom shop/repairer , although we do have our own stock - although we don't have a showroom with all our guitars out on display (much to my own frustration - we'd be really dangerous if we did!)

However we do make Forum guys very welcome!

[AndyR]

Hmmm, seems to be the same story all 'round. Guess I'll just stick to checking out Wunjo guitars and that place where Jfpamps works, and leave it at that. Can anyone tell me how far away Feline Guitars is from the City center?

Once you're there, it's worth wandering through them all - if one shop doesn't grab you, you'll soon figure it out and leave! We usually do a little tour of Denmark St when we're up in town - it's the concession I get for going round shoes and clothes shops! It takes longer than my missus would like, but you can get it all done quite quickly from a guitarist's point of view.

If you're thinking of buying, it is definitely worth knowing what prices might be elsewhere. Most of them can't beat internet prices, but some will get very close if you're polite and persistant.

And it's definitely worth a trip down to Jonathan. Like he says though, no showroom, it's not like a guitar shop - so don't expect a lot of guitars out on display to look at if you have to wait while he's finishing dealing with someone else!

(I do think you're right Jonathan, you'd be a LOT more dangerous if you had the ability to say "I'm busy with xxx for 10 minutes - tell you what, cruise round that lot in there, just ask first if you want to pick one up..." :lol:)

[Loomer]

Hahaha, that's fine by me! :P If I can persuade the missus I'd probably much rather hop by Jonathan and say hello, if nothing at least just to check out his handiwork, since he is very much on the shortlist for Luthiers I'd like to work with after my next tax return.

[FELINEGUITARS]

The one thing that I liked about the old London Guitar Shows was having all my guitars out and on display

London show 2006


BKP London meet/jam


It's another reason why I enjoyed hosting the last London BKP day out - as once again I could show off my toys

If I could have them on permanent display it would be nice - I reckon I would maybe sell a few more as people would see something that they hadn't tried before and before you know it they'd be figuring out how to afford it



I may have more of a problem keeping enough guitars built to keep the showroom full.