Piccadilly Records

Founded in 1978 and run since 1990 through its own small company — Laura Kennedy and Darryl Mottershead have been the directors for over three decades, which in record retail is several geological eras — Piccadilly Records moved to 53 Oldham Street in 1997 and became the Northern Quarter's reference point before the phrase existed. The staff listening notes, written in-house for every stocked release, are the shop's real product; the vinyl merely comes with them. It has been voted the country's best independent record store by the trade press over the years, and it was on the counter for Record Store Day 2026, as it is every year.