Rough Trade East

The great stalwart of independent music, Rough Trade in Covent Garden has finally had to close after rents became simply unaffordable. HMV has reported a 73% drop in sales, while Musiczone and the sainted Fopp have closed altogether. And now Rough Trade are opening an independent, vinyl-led record shop on the scale of a high street record store, but with a stock that is wildly eclectic. It sounds like an insane decision, but the shop itself, designed by David Adjaye, the brightest young star of UK architecture, is a masterpiece of indie chic. It hasn't quite achieved the gleeful shabbiness of the original - years of affectionate vandalism by teenage staff with marker pens and blu-tack is still needed - but on the plus side there's finally room for more than three people to browse the record racks at once. The soundsystem puts many of the local clubs to shame, and there are plenty of places to sit down and chat, so the aim is clearly to make this a meeting point for music-fans, as much as a simple store. Rough Trade East is definitely cool, but whether it's also commercially viable in the age of the download, only time will tell.