Vinyl and roasts at The Elmhurst record fair

If you've spent your Sunday morning anywhere near Tottenham, you might have caught the tail end of the North London Record Fair, which ran from 10am to 4pm today at The Elmhurst on Lordship Lane. It's a free event that pairs vinyl hunting with a traditional Sunday roast, and it's exactly the kind of low-key afternoon that rewards a bit of wandering. The tables were laid out with vinyl across all genres, including a fresh batch of 45s and rarities brought back from recent digging trips to Stockholm, while DJs kept things moving throughout the day, with Neil Thornton taking the centre spot. The music leaned towards downtempo and funk, and the whole thing was family- and dog-friendly, with roasts being served right through to the late afternoon. If you're planning to make it next time, tables for the roast can be booked through Design My Night.

The venue itself is half the draw. The Elmhurst is a large, beautiful pub built in 1903, sitting on Lordship Lane right across the road from Bruce Castle Park and a short walk from the Tottenham Hotspur stadium. It wears its Edwardian bones proudly: a Queen Anne-style exterior with bold gables, a corner spirelet and ornate windows, and an interior that opens onto a beautifully carved back bar, a central clock, a moulded ceiling and stained glass windows. CAMRA gave it a 'one star' rating, reserved for pub interiors of special national historic interest, and singled out the magnificent back bar and the richly decorated ceiling, both part of the original Edwardian design. The whole place is built around a large covered garden, which blends traditional pub food with a serious amount of outdoor space.

That garden is the real headline act. Billed as Tottenham's Biggest Beer Garden, it's the largest in the area, with seating areas you can book for groups of any size, an outside bar, TVs, garden games and even a London Taxi converted into a table with seating for four and speakers to play your own music. It's the sort of space that makes a record fair feel less like a market and more like a proper afternoon out.

Behind the event is Dom Martin, with Neil Thornton also listed as an organiser. Thornton is a London-based selector and a fixture of the city's music community, known for curating vinyl-only sessions that sit somewhere between a social gathering and a bit of musical education. He runs community-focused vinyl-only DJ sets, record fairs and family-friendly garden parties across North London venues, with The Elmhurst in Tottenham appearing frequently on the list. His sets tend to wander across 80s boogie, disco, italo, funk, street soul, reggae and jungle, which explains the broad appeal of the day. If you missed out this time, it's worth keeping an eye on his next one, because the combination of a proper pub, a great garden and a good stack of vinyl is hard to beat on a Sunday.