Flashback Records

Mark Burgess opened Flashback on Essex Road in Islington in 1997 and, by his own account, sold his house to keep it trading through the vinyl slump of the 2000s. It survived, and there are now three Flashback shops across north and east London, all his — new and second-hand records, CDs and cassettes, well-priced and well-kept. The Islington original is the flagship, open every day. An owner-operator who bet everything on records at the worst possible moment and was proved right. Flick through; it rewards it.