Dash The Henge is a record and book shop located in Camberwell, South London. We threw open the doors in October 2022 with a live performance from the mighty Warmduscher, after the much loved Rat Records departed the building after 22 years.
“We stock new and reissued vinyl, second hand records, seven inches, CDs plus music related books and merch.
The store has been designed as a platform for the local creative community and as such we have live music every Saturday at 5pm plus poetry events, book launches, label launches, screenings and everything in between!
As an outpost of Dash The Henge Records we also hold a quarterly party up the road at Peckham Audio.”
The store is open 7 days a week 11-7pm with online shipping globally 24/7.
Links: @dashthehengestore@dashthehengerecords
🤔 Who should be on the next CC feature?
Who are your favourite kind of customers?
“We stock a very wide selection of vinyl, we consider our store genre-fluid, as long as it’s interesting we’ll stock it! As such, our favourite type of customer is the one that comes in and takes their time browsing the selection, this can take some time with around 3,000 records out on the shop floor at any one time – plus singles, CDs and books! Many customers are happy to do so and 9 times out of 10 find some gems, the best things come to those who wait, as they say!”
Are there any local, independent artists whose records you always keep in stock?
“Supporting local artists is a big part of our offering so alongside our Dash The Henge Records label artists we hold a lot of stock from other local artists. Due to our location it’s rich pickings, with The Old Dispensary over the way and The Windmill up the road plus numerous other live music venues in and around South London we’re never short of local artists to stock, come down and check out our Local Artists section!”
How do you curate your inventory? What factors do you consider when selecting new records to stock?
“Before we opened the shop we had literally zero records, in 8 weeks we selected artists and labels we wanted to stock, found distributors where appropriate and began placing orders. Our curation is primarily done by Chris OC who has wide and expansive taste but always looking for something just outside the mainstream. We appreciate that the more mainstream titles are available everywhere and frankly with their buying power the bigger stores are probably going to be able to sell them a few pounds cheaper so we try to steer clear and stock stuff that will surprise and delight. Nothing makes us happier than when someone comes back to the shop having taken a punt on a record to tell us it’s their new favourite!”
How do you handle the preservation and restoration of old or damaged records that come into your possession?
“Our team work tirelessly to process records in the basement to keep our secondhand sections refreshed with new stock. From buying the right collections up front to grading records based upon quality and genre to valuing and cleaning records ready for the Saturday Drop, the process never stops.”
What is your personal favourite record currently in store, and why?
“A big shop favourite is this gem from 1977 “Blue” Gene Tyranny – Out of the Blue, a reissue on Unseen Worlds. This was one of the first new records we received in-store and we’ll forever associate it with the store opening. An experimental record that covers multiple genres we’ve made it our Record of the Month for all our Archdruid – Patrons of the Henge and sold around 20 copies to customers we’ve recommended it to.”
