Inside Speed City Records with red crates packed with records, wall posters, and stacked CDs

London, Ontario independent record store since 1997

Built after In Yer Ear. Still in the bins.

Speed City Records is a working London record store with decades of buying, selling, listening, and staying useful behind it.

Visit the Shop

A real shop earns history by staying useful.

When In Yer Ear closed, Michael Todd opened Speed City Records and built something that lasted. As music retail changed, the shop stayed useful by sticking to what matters: records, used music, buying and selling, stereo gear, local knowledge, and fair dealing. The shop has been around this long because people in London, Ontario still have a reason to come in.

London matters to the story. So does the fact that Speed City Records is still here, still buying, still selling, still part of the city's music culture.

Open book showing Michael Todd in The Record Keepers beside the Speed City Records story
The hand painted Speed City Records record logo sign on the shop wall

Three points in the groove.

  1. 1997

    Speed City Records opens on March 1, 1997 after the closure of In Yer Ear.

  2. Built through change

    The shop adapts as formats, buying habits, and the music business keep changing around it, without losing the feel of a real independent record store.

  3. Still rooted in London

    Speed City remains tied to the local scene through collectors, regulars, local releases, and the London Record Show.

Jim Ashby Speed City record and sleeve photographed for The Record Keepers
Copyright 2026 Josh Greenberg. Used under license by Michael Todd, Speed City Records. From The Record Keepers by Josh Greenberg. Photos by Jess Baird and Josh Greenberg.

A LONDON SONG BECAME THE SHOP NAME.

Speed City was not picked in a branding exercise. It came from a London song.

Jim Ashby recorded Speed City at Track Four Sound in 1970. Wayne Todd was one of Ashby's close friends, and Michael Todd grew up with the record before opening Speed City Records in 1997.

The story is now part of The Record Keepers by Josh Greenberg, which documents record shops across Canada and why rooms like this still matter.

The Speed City Records storefront on Springbank Drive in London, Ontario

Records, used CDs, stereo gear, collections, and local trust.

The history only matters because the shop still works today. Come in for the bins, call about a collection, or start online through the current Discogs shop.