Cardiff store owner tells the story behind the oldest record store in the world
Amelia Jones
The owner of the world’s oldest record shop has shared the story behind Cardiff’s iconic music store and what makes it so special.
In a video posted by Cullan Mais, host of The Central Club Podcast, owner Ashli Todd explained what makes the shop’s history so distinctive.
It was founded by Henry Spiller in 1894, and is recognised by Guinness World Records as the world’s oldest shop selling records. Today, it is owned by Ashli Todd, who took over the business from her father, Nick Todd, in 2010, continuing a family connection that stretches back several decades.
Henry first opened the business in Queen’s Arcade, Cardiff, selling phonographs, wax phonograph cylinders and shellac discs at a time when recorded music was still a relatively new technology. The shop was helping customers experience music through physical recordings more than half a century before the introduction of the modern vinyl LP.
In the early 1920s, his son Edward took over the business. Working alongside accordionist and bandleader Joe Gregory, he expanded its offering to include musical instruments alongside recorded music. By the late 1940s, the shop had moved to larger premises on The Hayes, where it would remain for decades
The business eventually passed out of the Spiller family and into the hands of a group of businessmen. In 1986, Nick Todd, who had been managing the shop since 1975, bought the business. A DJ and music enthusiast, Nick had originally been a customer before finding himself running the shop.
His daughter Ashli would later followed him into the business. In the video, Ashli explained how the shop’s ownership had changed over the years.
She said”: “There have been a few different owners of the business. So hence the name, the Spiller family had it, started it in 1894. Then it passed to a collective of businessmen. So it was like a little conglomerate of people and then into my family.”
Ashli also described the unexpected circumstances that led her father to become involved with the shop in the first place.
“My dad was a DJ and he was a customer in the shop, and he was just in the shop one day when the manageress at the time was having an absolute nightmare. I think she nearly walked out and just had a gutsful. And he’s kept it since.”
Keeping the legacy alive
Spillers’ remarkable history has not meant its future was always secure. In the 2000s, rising rents at its premises on The Hayes threatened the shop’s survival, prompting a campaign supported by musicians and music fans across the world.
The Manic Street Preachers publicly backed the business, describing it as a vital source of musical education. A petition attracted more than 20,000 signatures, with international names including Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen among those supporting efforts to save the shop.
In 2010, Spillers moved from The Hayes to Morgan Arcade, remaining in Cardiff city centre while beginning a new chapter in its history. The move coincided with Nick stepping away from the business and his daughters Ashli and Grace taking over ownership.
The transition marked a significant moment for the family, with Ashli continuing to build on the foundations laid by her father while adapting the shop to a changing music industry.
In a 2015 interview with The Guardian, Ashli explained that she and her sister had grown up working part-time in the shop before pursuing other interests. Ashli had studied at Cardiff University and worked in the arts, while Grace went into teaching, before both eventually became involved in running the business.
Oldest in the world
In the video posted by Mais, she said: “We were established in 1894. We’ve got the sign up there. And we are actually the oldest record shop in the world.
“And that is because ever since 1894, we have been selling physical music. So in order to be the world’s oldest record shop, you need to have sold records since the year you started.”
She also addressed a shop in Malta that people sometimes mention when discussing the title.
She added: “Lots of people like coming in and telling us about a shop in Malta, which started off as a furniture shop in, I think, 18 something. And then turned into a record store in about 1920.
“I mean, they’re an old shop and an old family-owned business, and I think that’s amazing, but not an old record shop. An old furniture shop that became a record shop.”
Today, Spillers continues to stock music across a wide range of genres, champion independent artists and host in-store performances and signings.
You can watch the full interview here.
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