J G Windows - Record Shop in Newcastle upon Tyne

Central Arcade since 1908. Three floors, and the oldest shop in the directory bar two.

Shop

J G Windows

Address

1-7 Central Arcade

Town

Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom

Established

1908

Formats

Vinyl, CDs

Crates

Classical, Rock, Pop, Jazz, Folk

In the shop

In-store gigs

James Gale Windows opened this shop in 1908. He was born in Cowley, Oxfordshire in 1870 and moved to Newcastle in his late teens to work as a music seller's assistant, which is a career that no longer exists and a job title worth preserving. It has been in the Central Arcade - a tiled Edwardian arcade that is a listed building in its own right - ever since, across three floors of instruments, studio and DJ equipment, PA systems, printed music and records. It is more than a record shop and says so, but it has sold records for a hundred and seventeen years and still runs Record Store Day alongside the city's specialists. Only two shops in this directory have been trading longer, and neither of them is in England.