Wilson Pecks

Beethoven House, Nos. 66 – 70 Leopold Street
Wilson Peck was one of Sheffield’s most important music retailers and is often regarded as the city’s oldest major music shop. The business was formed in 1892 by the merger of piano dealers Arthur Wilson and John Peck and became known as Arthur Wilson, Peck & Co. Ltd.

The company established its flagship “Beethoven House” showroom at the corner of Pinstone Street and Barker’s Pool in Sheffield city centre. It sold pianos, organs, sheet music and later gramophone records. Wilson Peck’s instrument department was surprisingly extensive, especially from the 1950s through the 1980s. It was also the source of City Hall tickets, often resulting in mile long queues when large acts (such as Pink Floyd) went on sale.

The best-documented layout of the later Beethoven House at Barker’s Pool/Leopold Street was:

  • Ground floor: pianos, organs and later electronic keyboards.
  • First floor: musical instruments and sheet music.
  • Basement: record department with listening booths and the famous concert ticket office for Sheffield City Hall.

Wilson Peck described itself as “the place to go for everything musical” and sold far more than pianos. By the 1950s and 1960s it stocked a wide range of instruments, sheet music, radios, televisions and records. One interesting detail is that Wilson Peck also had branches on London Road and Ecclesall Road, not just the city-centre Beethoven House.

The company finally left Beethoven House in 1988, moved to Rockingham Gate, and later to Abbeydale Road before closing around 2001.

See our entry for the record department.

Back to the list of Record Shops  and Music Shops – if you have any information or images about this shop, we’d love to hear from you.