Yamaha Music London is a musical instrument and sheet musicretail storeowned and operated by Yamaha Music Europe GmbH's UK branch. Yamaha Music London is located on Soho's Wardour Street and the majority of the building has Grade II Listed status. The store comprises four floors, three of which serve as retail areas:
The Piano Hall has regularly been used as an intimate concert venue and has held concerts by Jamie Cullum, The Kit Downes Trio and other Yamaha-linked artists, often in conjunction with UK charity Centrepoint. Likewise, the basement features a stage for instore gigs and product demonstrations. The store was officially launched on 29 January 2015.
History
Yamaha Music London was born out of the Chappell of Bond Streetmusic store. Originally established as Chappell & Co. in 1811 on London's Bond Street, Chappell of Bond Street was an acoustic piano maker and publisher of sheet music in the UK. Around 1980, the UK company Kemble & Company, also a piano builder, bought the Chappell piano business and musical instrument store. The music publishing arm was bought by Warner Bros to form Warner/Chappell Music. Kemble & Company ran a joint venture with Yamaha in Japan - trading as Yamaha-Kemble, the business successfully brought Yamaha organs, digital pianos and later guitars, orchestral instruments and professional music equipment into the UK where they acted as exclusive distributor. In 1987, Nippon Gakki renamed itself Yamaha Corporation Japan. The Chappell of Bond Street stores acted as major retail outlets for the imported Yamaha products, as well as selling Chappell pianos and sheet music. In September 2005, the Milton Keynes branch of Chappell of Bond Street closed with sources citing the end of the original 25-year lease and the spiralling costs of shopping centre rental rates as the cause. In November 2007, the remaining Chappell of Bond Street store relocated from its Bond Street basement premises to the vacant 160 Wardour Street building, originally built and designed by the Novello Publishing company circa 1905. The Wardour Street premises offered far more space but necessitated substantial upgrading including the installation of a piano lift and a disabled lift. In 2009, Yamaha Kemble was wholly bought out by Yamaha Corporation Japan and repurposed as Yamaha Music UK Ltd, as an intermediate stage to merging with Yamaha's European operations. At the same time, Kemble Music Ltd was officially liquidated with all assets and the musical instrument store being sold to Yamaha Music UK Ltd. Shortly afterwards, Yamaha Music UK Ltd merged with the new Yamaha Music Europe company, consolidating some European operations and holding of stock. Throughout this change, the Chappell of Bond Street store continued to operate. In 2015, it underwent a major refit and was re-launched as Yamaha Music London. Whilst the 'new' store was praised for its spacious and welcoming atmosphere, some long-term customers were saddened to see the shrinkage of the sheet music department. Likewise, whilst Chappell of Bond Street had to some degree stocked instruments from competing brands such as Korg and Roland, the new store is almost exclusively stocked with Yamaha or Yamaha-associated products.
National Learn To Play Day
Since its inception in 2012 by the charity Music For All, National Learn To Play Day has been held annually at many musical instrument stores in the UK. Yamaha Music London has maintained its involvement, offering free starter music lessons throughout the day and has in the past featured drum lessons with comedian Al Murray.
Celebrity Customers
Many famous broadcasters and musicians have been spotted in Yamaha Music London over the years, including Emeli Sandé, Stephen Fry, Jack Dee, Idris Elba, Jamie Cullum and Jools Holland. Recently singer/songwriter Shaefri included Yamaha Music London in her London hangouts on Elle UK.
