Charles Byrne Musik Instrumente has lived inconspicuously on Stephens Street for over a hundred years, but has less German history than the name suggests.
After stretching to press the door bell, we were let in and Charles Byrne himself told us about the beginnings of the shop, "The business started with my grandfather who got it in 1900 for repairing Egan Harps, so my family goes that far back connected with the music world."
Over the years the shop began selling instruments as well as repairing, until someone let fire to the building through the letterbox in 1992. His wife Maria told us, "It was a sad lost. But we were also very lucky. We could've been in the place working."
Geraldine, their daughter, added, "It was an opportunity as well. We had been here one hundred odd years and you do accumulate a lot of junk in that time. Since then there's been a lot of new things, a lot of changes. It rejuvenated the place as well."
Charles said, "After the fire Geraldine said she'd stay with us and help straighten things out. So I grabbed one arm and my wife grabbed the other and we says ‘You're in!’ and we have no regrets. She is excellent.”
You might expect a hundred year old shop to have a sort of dusty charm but Charles Byrne Musik Instrumente also have a website, blog and twitter.
On our visit, Peter Peterson from Washington State visited, “I came here for a low whistle. I've never seen them in a shop before."
But it's not only tourists that visit, Charles says, "I'm seeing grandchildren and great grand children of my first customers coming in so that shows ya I'm getting old. People make a special effort to shop here, that's how we're still in business."
"There's people who trust dad and wont go anywhere else,” beams Geraldine.
As we were leaving, being forced (ok maybe not ‘forced) to take a sweet and a calender, a German tourist inquires about the name, Charles tells her with a wink that he added the name for a laugh with a German supplier.
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