Remember being so excited when Dad took me up to London to visit on my 10th birthday. It seemed huge to little me !
Glad it’s back. Will be interesting to see the extent (and price!) of it’s stock.
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Good news indeed! More than worthy of promotion from the Lounge to the Music Room…
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Coincidently, i went in to my local town center to pick something up from the Apple Shop, i dont often go into town, but when i do i always pop in to HMV for a browse. So i was a bit upset as i approached the HMV location to see it was shut and even the external signage had gone. However looking in the window i noticed a sign that said it was temporarily shut for refurbishment, and in fact there was a flock of workers busy inside. So good to see that there does seem to be some investment going on. They do seem to have changed their focus over the last couple of years, less music & films and lots more “Merch” front and centre - with the vinyl now all at the back corner. Will be interesting to se how it is laid out after the refurbishment.
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Great news.
I’m a little sad that they’ve had to diversify into all sorts of non-musical pop culture merchandise rather than focussing just on music, but such is the way of the post-internet shopping world.
I have very fond memories of the awesome variety of stock in both the old Oxford Street branch and the Market Street branch in Manchester. We will probably never see their like again…
Mark
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Very true - walking into a shop with acres upon acres of racked albums/CDs was a joy.
I remember taking trips up to Virgin at the top of Oxford Street on a Saturday morning starting at ‘A’ in the rock and pop section and ending in ‘Z’ about three hours later.
We lived in a golden age.
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A golden age indeed, many a lost afternoon in Virgin and evening in Tower plus a host of independent record shops. Must admit HMV was never a great favourite, didn’t have the same selection, certainly in my neighbourhood.
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HMV Oxford Street was one of my main sources, when I was first exploring Classical Music, late in the LP era (mid to late 80’s). Just a train ride away…!!
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Good news indeed… even though I don’t go down to London much these days but when I do I shall be going back to HMV!
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I remember being in a music store in Amsterdam years ago. Long wide tables with screens and headphones every so often, seats either side and coffee, or even a beer, available.
I got off an early flight and went there about 11:00am, ordered an illy coffee and a Cognac. They were playing ‘Meet Me in London’ - my first introduction to AF. Conversation began with knowledgeable staff and others joined in - “…try this track…how about this artist?” and so on. It was a memorable social experience and what music can be all about; sharing, discovery and so on. Ultimately I bought a few cds of course, and I remember which ones. Playing them brings back that experience.
HMV seemed like such a dinosaur by comparison. When it died I remember telling my wife about the Amsterdam experience and how they were so behind the curve.
Good luck in their rebirth. I hope they make it sustainable.
G
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That’s proper service 
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I worked in London back in the day. I was never inspired by HMV in Oxford Street. I spent many hours browsing through the racks of the much- missed Tower Records in Piccadilly. Always found what I wanted and a few more cds that I didn’t know I wanted.
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Back when I worked in London our local shopping centre had Our Price. 
Our office was just behind HMV, it was obligatory to pop in there on pay day and get a bit of vinyl. HMV was more main stream and quite noisy. Soho had a large handful of independent record shops which was great too.
From memory Tower records had a wider selection and was a nicer shopping experience.
Hope it works out for HMV
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Unfortunatley no such luxury for those of us who live in a Shire.
Record stores are but a distant memory.
Wonderful news, I too have lots of memories of browsing this huge HMV as well as the one in Liverpool which was near to my home town. Record shops are such a treat to visit and in recent years I have deliberately made a point of continuing to buy music, films etc from what few stores remain (HMV mostly in my area) rather than just buying everything on Amazon. My reasoning is quite simply if I think record shops are a worthwhile and enjoyable experience, I and others like me need to do our bit to keep them open - even if it means not necessarily buying something at the cheapest possible price. Use it or lose it as they say…
I’ve even taken part in providing filmed footage of my local HMV to the youtube channel ‘movie collector’ because he was seeking to support HMV by getting all of us to showcase our local HMV branch in a series of videos he compiled. Like me he tries to buy things in HMV regularly on principle.
Browsing the shelves of records and films is such a glorious experience and I find things that way far more effectively than I do by browsing online.
JonathanG
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When I popped into out local HMV a few weeks ago all the vinyl had disappeared from downstairs, replaced by all manner of ‘tat’ which is presumably popular. The vinyl had been moved upstairs which does not bode well. Their racks were always too full to easily flip through content and browse, I suspect it’s the same now.
Ultimately they have to make a profit to survive on the high street, and it’s such hassle to get into town these days I rarely bother unless there’s something I really need.
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Good news indeed, they have done well to turn a failing business model around.
Gary
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My first encounter with HMV was when my father took me to their shop next to Bond Street station to buy a copy of the Grieg Piano Concerto. I can remember the HMV plumb label of CLP1037 which years later I picked up a used copy. Moura Lympany. Side two has the first piano concerto by Rachmaninoff.
I must have been about 13!
This was the start of my interest in both music and hi-fi. At that time we had a radiogram with a Collaro autochanger. Quite a difference from my current LP12.
Years later I was a sales rep based just south of Piccadilly with my area covering Mayfair. This provided an opportunity to drop in on the Virgin store close by Tottenham Court Road station and the massive HMV shop close by Oxford Circus. By this time the Bond Street store was no more.
The Oxford Circus shop has a massive classical area in the basement with such a deep catalogue that just about anything was available off the shelf or rack. We are now well into the CD era.
Great it has come back. For me its a bit late as at 79 its not an easy visit.
The shop in Kingston-on-Thames used to be pretty good on classical CD box sets at sometimes almost give away prices. However its too easy now for me to go on line and often get what I want the same day.
There is nothing quite like flicking through racks of either LPs or CDs in a well stocked record store. One reason for physical media to have the edge over downloads for me anyway.
As a slight aside but relevant to the current state of record shops I was interested to see Rough Trade East in London has gone almost exclusively vinyl. There is literally just one small wall rack of a dozen or so new release CDs. I’m sure it makes good commercial sense. After vinyl, the second largest media is books.
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As it’s a minute or so walk from work, I’ll certainly pop in…something to do on my breaks again 
…but the Bond St location was a poor one compared to the HMV further up Oxford Street (always liked the enclosed Classical section, for instance).
Glad that Nipper will grace the Street again!
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Even though I very rarely visit central London nowadays, it’s good to see HMV returning to Oxford St, although I did prefer the TCR-end HMV, but it was just too-big a store when CDs supplanted vinyl LPs as the dominant medium.
The Bluewater and Maidstone HMV’s have more vinyl than before, but I would hope they have a plan if the vinyl resurgence should peter out.
As an aside, Rochester High St is shortly going to get a record shop, which will make a change from charity and bric-a-brac shops and eateries.
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