Piano Shop Is To Close At The End Of March.

The Cheltenham Piano Centre, also known as Musical Instruments Cheltenham, is set to close on Saturday 28th March 2015. The announcement of a closure has come about as a result of four key members, Keith Beckingham, Gordon Taylor, John Beckingham and Lyndon Donington, wishing to retire. Cheltenham Piano Centre was opened in 1965 by Horace Matthews and Reg Heard, and was later taken over by WMC piano manufacturing group. After WMC ceased operations in 2003, the store became independently owned by Beckingham, Taylor, Beckingham and Donington.

“It is very sad to be closing the shop in its 50th trading year,” commented Keith Buckingham. “However, despite our best efforts over the past three years we have been unable to find someone to take it over. Although, with stocks now almost at zero and the oldsters like me being pensioned off, perhaps someone will come along to whom we can pass the baton! Local reaction to our closure among the musical fraternity has been quite moving, attracting considerable publicity in the local press and on BBC Radio Gloucestershire confirming the need for this type of business here in the centre of the wealthy Cotswolds.”