Down one side of Folkies music shop in Kilburn, north-west London, you can still see a yellow sign that reads “Accordions”. In the basement, you’ll find a smaller sign listing brands that used to be sold from the building – Cantori, Gallini, Luciano, Bugari: it was the capital’s go-to shop for the instrument in the early 20th century. Today you’ll still find the odd accordion in stock at Folkies, but it’s just one string to the shop’s bow.
The storefront on Kilburn High Road © Karishma Puri
“I like the quirky stuff and the strange instruments that you’ve never worked on before but that you get to know because there’s so many immigrants around here, including myself,” says Israel-born owner Omri Chetrit, gesturing at a group of lute-like instruments, including a Bulgarian gadulka, a bouzouki from Crete and a Spanish bandurria. “People bring music from all over.”
Folkies began in 2008 as a collaboration between Chetrit, a luthier and former employee of the now closed Blanks music shop further down Kilburn High Road, and John Leslie, the owner of the old Accordions shop. When Leslie died in 2015, Chetrit assumed responsibility for the labyrinthine space, whose scope he has gradually expanded from folk to music-making of all kinds.
