Rough Trade, a vinyl store based in Brick Lane, celebrates its 50th birthday this year.
The first shop in Notting Hill was opened by Geoff Travis, a former English teacher, who now co-owns the Rough Trade record label – now a separate company.
Nigel House, who began working at the store while studying landscape architecture, then bought the store in 1982, along with two others who were working there at the time.
House, said: “I just love the culture of music – meeting people, seeing people, seeing bands. I like the subversiveness of it.”
He added: “These days it might not be as political as it used to be – but its still great. I love it!”
While Rough Trade’s flagship store is in Brick Lane, it has three other branches in London, plus others in Nottingham, Bristol, Liverpool, Berlin and New York.
The company’s 50-year-mark comes amid a resurgence in the popularity of vinyl records – with sales growing year-on-year over the past decade, according to the British Phonographic Industry, the UK’s record industry trade association.
In the US, vinyl sales accounted for over $1 billion for the first time in four decades.
Taylor Swift has helped to propel this drive, with her 2025 release The Life of a Showgirl selling 147,000 – the most sales since the Official Charts Company began compiling record charts in the 1990s.
“When we first started out it was just vinyl and cassettes, and then CD’s came in, and I know some shops stopped selling vinyl virtually overnight, but we carried on.”
“I love the fact that vinyl’s come back – it’s the antithesis to the digital age!”, he added.
“During covid, one of the things we did was to change our sections, we put in a pop section, and these days that’s probably our most popular section.”
Last year, Rough Trade did 1,500 concerts and signings across their stores.
House said: “We just want to sell great music – sometimes its Taylor Swift, sometimes its Caroline Polachek, sometimes its Gorillaz.”
Feature image: Patrick Hess
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