Mickleburgh is an essential part of Stokes Croft, one of the first shops you are greeted with as you enter and has been selling instruments here for over a century. This began in the 1870s. The Mickleburgh family started a business in piano maintenance and by 1903 opened a piano shop in Stokes Croft, the one that still stands today. Over time, the family opened more stores selling a wider variety of instruments, making music more available to the people of Bristol. The Stokes Croft shop expanded also, extending into THE buildings next door. However, the entire structure was destroyed during the Bristol Blitz in 1942. The family took the risk after the war of constructing just one music shop back in its first Stokes croft location. The new shop, full of instruments, opened its doors in 1957. 

Since then, Mickleburgh has grown to become one of the largest independent music shops in the south west. It is most known for its pianos, but now has an assortment of instruments, stemming from guitars to strings to brass and woodwind. With more than 130 years of experience, the shop continues to be vital to stokes croft and the wider bristol music community. 

Now, The 122 year old shop is moving again, just temporarily, whilst the building receives significant renovations. The shop has moved to Clifton, to a 6,000 square fooT space across from the QER theatre for the next 3 years. Director Sophie Garret, a member of the Mickleburgh family, claims that the new location will expand out into “a sea of instruments”, with the majority of the space feeling a lot bigger than the Stokes Croft shop. The new location will also include a piano workshop and a small office. 

It is exceptional that mickleburgh has persevered through the Covid pandemic, bombing and now the advance in online shopping. This renovation is all about securing the shop's future and ensuring that THE upcoming generation of musicians will pick up an instrument and fall in love with it.