Chiff and Fipple Forums

Hello guys,

A friend of mine is going to spend next week in London, and he would like to bring back a couple of whistles.
Can some of you indicate me some whistle shops in London which would have a good choice of whistles, I mean more than the classicals Generations or Feadogs that we can find quite everywhere ?

Thanks, and happy new year to all of you !

Thierry

Hi Thierry,

I only know one, and that is Hobgoblin in Rathbone place, do a google search and it will bring up the site, they stock various makes, I bought my Copeland 3 piece low d and a steve Harper D/C whistle from there, they hold a fair bit of stock, its not all located in the London store, I would give them a ring before visiting just to check they have it in stock, they also have a selection of used instruments, not a lot of used whistles but they usually have dixons, chieftains, overtons, some copelands, worth a visit,
they are not the cheapest though, but you can try before you buy.

cheers sponge

Most of my London whistle needs centre around the 'Tottenham Court Road' tube station (metro).

Hobgoblin has already mentioned and it is about 5 mins from the station - They do have a reasonable number of whistles and flutes and don't mind you playing them all. There have lots of other instruments to try out.

Virgin Megastore is immediately outside the tube station and always has some new whistle CDs that I haven't got on the third floor, I think, in the Irish and folk sections.

Denmark Street is a couple of minutes from the tube station in the opposite direction to Hobgoblin. This is full of music shops and one shop mainly sells written music and I have forgotten the name of the store but the street is short. You can find quite a few books of Irish tunes if that interests you.

Denmark St is off Charring Cross Road and a little farther down Charring Cross road on the left there is another music shop that normally has a few whistles like Chieftains and also some cheapies. They also often have a handful of other ethnic wind instruments like panpipes and things.

All Flutes Plus is about 10 minutes up Tottenham Court Road and they usually have a few whistles and I mean a FEW. But it is a great place to try out flutes you cannot afford. http://www.allflutesplus.co.uk/2006/index.htm A closer tube station for that shop is Warren St if you don't fancy walking.

The Early Music Shop is farther away on Chiltern St. It is a London's main recorder centre I believe. I have sometimes seen a few whistles there. http://www.e-m-s.com/front/emsframes.html

Yes all flutes plus is a great shop, worth pointing out that most of all there flutes are of the boehm type, but if you have $ 20,000 you could snap up a nice pro flute.


sponge

Thanks to both of you for all those adresses. This will allow my friend to spend at least an afternoon whistle hunting !
And I'll do the same next time I'll go to London.

Cheers
Thierry