If you’re anything like us, there’s nothing you love more than happening upon a small independent record store, wandering through its narrow aisles, and flipping through carefully curated selections of dusty vinyl. There’s something so quaint and peaceful about that cluttered, closet-sized space.
Imagine our reaction when we saw Matt Hawton’s record store, which is thought to be the smallest vinyl record shop in the UK. And we’re not gonna argue. Inspired by the recent resurgence in vinyl records, Hawton now operates his store out of a shed at the bottom of his garden in Peterborough.
According to a report by ITV, via Stoney Roads, the UK’s smallest vinyl store is so small that you can walk across it in just three paces. However, the size limitations doesn’t carry over to its selection. As ITV reports, Hawton’s garden shed houses over six thousand vinyl records.
“The music industry changed, particularly with the advent of CDs and now downloads, and the whole model is starting to change, but there’s a lot of our customers who are young and who actually want to physically own something,” Hawton tells ITV.
“When you play a record, you’re actually taking it out of the sleeve, you’re putting it onto the turntable and playing, and you get some involvement in playing it,” adds Hawton, who opened the store as an addition to his online business.
Of course, owning a record store in a shed does have its issues. “We actually had 10 customers in the shop at one point, so I had to stand outside,” Hawton recounts. However, he adds, “I don’t see that as a dissatisfaction, you know? Me having to stand outside the shop because it’s proven so popular is just fantastic.”
