Underneath the rust and soot of this building lies a dinosaur: a. it existed years and years ago, and could not exist today. b. it died out around the same time as its brethren in some kind of mass extinction. and c. there’s plenty of evidence left behind for us to use in piecing together what happened. Spoiler: the discs weren’t so unlimited after all.
Unlimited Discs, in north Beverly Hills, sold cool stuff – vinyl, CDs, comics – and I’d wager it was both first and second hand. I never went here BITD, but if I’d been able to, I would have. While all of the shop’s touted inventory have either become obsolete or are on their way out, back in the heyday, you could get any of them easily, be it from music shops like Brashs, or in the case of comics, your local newsagent. Things have changed, obviously. Shops like Unlimited Discs existed for people wanting to buy then-prohibitively expensive CDs on the cheap, or those enthusiasts who couldn’t get what they needed (back issues, rarities etc) from mainstream outlets like newsagents or record shops. Unfortunately, as the mainstream outlets dried up and the internet rose to prominence as a shopping medium, the Unlimited Discs of the world died out.
Not helping the situation of this particular record shop is its extremely close proximity to the Beverly Hills entrance/exit of the M5 Motorway, which opened in 1992 and would have impacted upon Unlimited Discs’ business. Suddenly, in their rush to hit the motorway (presumably to go to the ‘better’ record shops in the city) no one wanted to shop local anymore. Also a factor: the shopfront appears to have been set on fire at some point, which isn’t good even if you don’t stock a tonne of vinyl. We can’t know exactly what happened here (unless YOU do, in which case let me know) but we can get an approximate date as to when it happened. The shop looks as if it’s been abandoned for years, with this Visa sticker in the window providing insight into the time when business was good:
Good luck, team.
I’d love to be able to get inside Unlimited Discs and see what’s still in there. I imagine stacks of unsold stock lying around waiting to be rediscovered and introduced to the 21st century. I imagine someone living there with hundreds of stories to tell about the golden years, when the discs really did seem unlimited. I also imagine I’m completely wrong, but I can dream, can’t I?
Bonus: around the back of this shop is Moondani Lane. Some of the locals have had some fun with it (perhaps they got the record at UD):
Past/Lives of the Near Future 
I remember going past this almost daily in the mid 90s on my way to school, I remember they used to sell religious cd’s…
btw it looked derelict at that stage as well
I started school over the road in 1989 and I honestly can’t remember that business over really being open. There was a spell of something there but don’t remember it clearly enough. Thee used to be a party place on the corner too, then it became a car parts business. It’s very difficult along there for a business to survive. If you look further up the road you have that odd group of shops up the top and they have had all sorts of things come and go over the years.
I also remember the front of the awning having Gospel written on it.
I too remember Gospel on the awning. Living just off King Georges Road, Beverly HIlls, I passed the shop 100s of times and I never saw it open. It always appeared to be derelict. Perhaps they were only open for a couple of months and had a cheap and dodgy job done on their awning advertising. They probably directly painted over an already rusty facade without any rust removal or priming, thereby enabling the rust to seep through almost instantaneously. Hence the awning having always looked derelict.
I went to the school across the road in the seventies, this shop at that time was I think a sandwich shop, or a newsagencey (they were next door, can’t remember which was which). The sandwich shop was always empty, an old man owned it, not very friendly to kids though we were his only customers.
I think that old man has owned every street shop of the like, I know him well.
I used to go there sometimes.
He was a friendly man who specialized in Gospel CDs but also stocked mainstream CDs. I can remember him selling Laser Video Discs as well (30cm in Diameter- a giant CD).
I don’t know how long he was open for or when he closed down but I’m sure I’ve seen him around the area still.
Graham i think his name was