Top Wind

Whilst in a rehearsal, one of my piccolo pads decided it didn’t like me and jumped out and flew away never to be seen again. As I’ve got a concert this Friday, I needed to get it fixed, but having never had my flute or picc serviced in London I wasn’t really sure where to go.
After talking to a couple of my flautist colleagues, I decided to go and give Top Wind a go. They’d been before and had lovely service and were happy to recommend it.
It’s near Lambeth North tube station which is a bit of a trek for me but I didn’t mind as it was necessary and also a welcome break from revision. When I got there I was a bit surprised as to what I found. A nice little shop where you got greeted the second you walked in, the owners milling around ready to welcome you. This place is a pure flute specialist shop, where the owners are all flute players, so they know exactly what you mean and what you’re after when you talk to them, which makes it a lot easier. Also they’ve got stacks of music, and CDs, all flute repertoire and recordings. On top of that they have a collection of flutes to try and buy, as well as piccolos, and no doubt some altos and bass flutes tucked away.
I hadn’t looked on the internet about the shop, and in hindsight I was probably a bit cheeky going in and asking as the guy working in the workshop area (there’s only room for one!) was up to his eyes in flutes that he was fixing and servicing. Luckily a single pad replacement is a quick job and so they were able to do it for me. It only took about ten minutes as he was already halfway through screwing a flute back together so he had to keep going with that a bit before gluing a pad in. Decent price for a quick job as well.
My flute and picc need a good service, so I’m going to try to get that done at some point, and I’ll definitely go back here. They were lovely chaps, really helpful and friendly and looked to be doing a great job with the mountain of flutes around.