“There are only five music shops in London selling a full range of instruments with the accessories and sheet music needed.” So says Lindsay Douglas, new owner of Dot’s, .
After a year in which it looked like Kentish/Camden’s beloved Dots Music Shop would probably be lost with the owner’s retirement from retail, it has found enthusiastic new ownership in Lindsay and Ian Douglas. And it re-opens this week, with the couple “inundated with delighted and relieved requests to hire back-to-school trumpets and violins”, she says.
It’s a nice turnaround for a store founded almost forty years ago in 1987 by Kentish Town music teacher Dot Fraser and her husband Noel, who retired in 2017. Visited by endless musicians passing through Camden to perform, it counts Amy Winehouse and Noel Gallagher as former customers, with Gallagher returning to Dots in the recent Netflix series on Camden.
And the new owners don’t plan to change a jot: it will still sell and hire a full range of instruments across brass, woodwind, strings, guitars and folk in addition to accessories for all, including percussion and performance, and an “inspiring” range of sheet music. It has a repairs workshop for brass, woodwind, strings and guitar in the basement, develops its own instruments and even acts as a hub for local music tutors.
“London can’t lose a music shop as iconic and important to Camden’s musical heritage as Dots Music,” says Douglas, who has a music industry background and recently wrote about the history of Camden’s music scene for a book on Camden Town. “This shop is loved right down to South London because general music shops are so rare.”
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“Dots’ expert musicians, luthiers and brass repairers, who give so much essential help to the public, are all happily staying on as part of the team. The staff are so friendly and non judgmental. You will never be patronised, for example, for knowing almost nothing about your kid’s school instruments. It’s a safe place to come as a learner and be respected as much as any professional.”
She argues that “music shops are needed because you can’t get expertise and friendly help from mass importers. Even a violin of the same brand will sound better if you buy it here. Dots’ luthier improves the hand-made violins to create better instruments that are completely unique to Dots. You can’t sound like this by ordering on Amazon.”
Illustration: Secret Artist NW5
The Dots Music website is at dotsmusic.co.uk. Dots is open 9am-5pm Monday to Saturday at 132 St Pancras Way, Camden, NW1 9NB.
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