What is the connection between 2 Tone Records and The British Boot Company?

2 Tone Records, founded by Jerry Dammers of The Specials in 1979, operated from the first floor directly above The British Boot Company at 5 Kentish Town Road, Camden Town. Madness signed their first record deal in the building.

Where was 2 Tone Records based in London?

2 Tone Records' London operations were based at 5 Kentish Town Road, Camden Town, NW1 8NH — the rooms above The British Boot Company (then known as Holts). The building is still standing and the boot shop is still open.

Did Madness sign their record deal at The British Boot Company?

Yes. Madness signed to 2 Tone Records in the building at 5 Kentish Town Road, Camden Town — the same building that houses The British Boot Company on the ground floor. The label operated from the first floor above the shop.

How 2 Tone Records Changed Music — From Above a Boot Shop

April 13, 2026
Posted by The British Boot Company

The Label Upstairs

Between 1979 and the early 1980s, one of the most important record labels in British music history operated from the first floor of a boot shop in Camden Town. The boot shop was ours. The label was 2 Tone Records. And the music that came out of those rooms — The Specials, Madness, The Selecter, The Beat — changed the sound of Britain.

This is not ancient history. The building is still here. The shop is still open. The boots are still on the shelves. And the bass from those rehearsals probably still lives in the walls.

What 2 Tone Was

2 Tone Records was founded by Jerry Dammers, keyboard player and songwriter for The Specials, in 1979. The label took its name from its guiding principle: music that brought together Black and white audiences, blending Jamaican ska and rocksteady with punk energy. The chequered black-and-white logo — Walt Jabsco in a pork-pie hat — became one of the most recognisable symbols in British music.

The movement was explicitly anti-racist at a time when the National Front was marching through British cities. 2 Tone was not just a sound — it was a political position, delivered through three-minute songs that you could dance to.

The Camden Connection

Jerry Dammers set up the label's London operations in the rooms above The British Boot Company — then known as Holts — at 5 Kentish Town Road, Camden Town. The shop was already established as one of London's most important boot retailers, run by Alan Roumana and known as the place to buy Dr Martens.

The location was not coincidental. Camden Town in the late 1970s was a crossroads of punk, ska, reggae, and working-class culture. The shop sat at the junction of these communities. Dr Martens boots were the common footwear across all of them. Having a record label above a boot shop was, in hindsight, perfectly logical.

Madness — seven young men from Camden and Kilburn — signed to 2 Tone and recorded their debut single "The Prince" in 1979. They did the deal in the building above our shop. Within months, they were on Top of the Pops. Within a year, they were one of the biggest bands in Britain.

The Boots and the Bands

The connection between 2 Tone and boots was not just physical proximity. The bands dressed the part. Dr Martens, brogues, loafers, Chelsea boots — footwear was as much a part of the 2 Tone look as the pork-pie hat and the tonic suit. The Specials wore DMs on stage. Madness wore them in every video.

And they bought them downstairs.

This shop has always existed at the intersection of music and footwear. The Clash bought boots here. Joe Strummer was a regular — our Strummer Range is named after him. The Madness connection runs through 2 Tone. The boot shop was not adjacent to the culture — it was inside it.

What 2 Tone Left Behind

The label released some of the most enduring singles of the late twentieth century. "Ghost Town" by The Specials is routinely cited as one of the greatest songs ever recorded — a portrait of Thatcher-era Britain set to a haunting ska arrangement. "One Step Beyond" by Madness became a national anthem for anyone who has ever been in a pub at closing time. "Too Much Too Young" hit number one.

The 2 Tone movement lasted only a few years in its original form, but its influence runs through every subsequent wave of British guitar music, from Britpop to the current ska revival. The Specials reformed. Madness never really stopped. And the chequered logo still appears on t-shirts, tattoos, and patches in every city in the world.

Visit the Building

The rooms upstairs are no longer a record label. But the shop is the same shop. The address is the same address. If you visit us at 5 Kentish Town Road, Camden Town, you are standing in the same building where 2 Tone operated, where Madness signed their deal, and where Jerry Dammers ran a label that changed British music.

We do not sell records. We sell boots. But the connection between the two has never really broken. The same subcultures that made 2 Tone necessary — punk, ska, mod, skinhead — are the same subcultures that made this shop what it is.

Browse our Dr Martens collection, our Loake brogues, and our Chelsea boots — the same styles that 2 Tone bands wore on stage. Or come to Camden and see the building for yourself.