Located at 250 Brixton Road, Theo’s was the first Black-owned record shop in this part of London. It was opened by Theo Campbell, a Jamaican emigre, in the mid-1950s, and stocked calypso and mento records, as well as US R&B and jazz. The shop also served as a community hub, and the upstairs offices were home to the West Indian Gazette. This meant that as well as selling records, the shop would become a meeting place for Black writers, artists, musicians, activists and politicians. Martin Luther King is thought to have visited Theo’s in 1963 on a trip to London.
