The Squeezebox Hospital, Canal Street (1974 – 2026)
Perth's only accordion repair shop fixed bellows, buttons and broken hearts. It closes as its owner finally retires to 'somewhere quiet'.
An old accordion, waiting for repair at the Squeezebox Hospital. Photo: Marko Bukovec, “Old-Slovenian Diatonic Button Accordion - Rudolf Bukovec”, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
The Squeezebox Hospital on Canal Street, Perth’s only accordion repair shop, has closed after 52 years, as its owner retires to what he described as “somewhere very, very quiet”.
For half a century, accordions came through its doors with leaking bellows, sticky buttons and keys “that sounded like a goose being asked a difficult question”. All of them left playing again.
The shop’s busiest week was always the week before the Perth Accordion and Fiddle Festival. “People would turn up at the last minute,” said the owner. “‘It’s making a funny noise,’ they’d say. I’d say, ‘It’s an accordion. That’s the noise.'”
Regulars remember the waiting room, which had a sign reading “Please Do Not Try the Instruments” and was never once obeyed.
The owner says he will miss the customers but not the noise. He has bought a house in a glen with no neighbours, no phone signal and, he insists, no instruments of any kind.
The real story: Perth Accordion and Fiddle Festival
Letters to the Editor
The views expressed are those of the reader, and frankly that's on them.
-
He fixed my box in 1988. Still playing. Enjoy the quiet, sir.
— Jimmy A., Aberfeldy, 31 October 2026 -
I tried the instruments in the waiting room. Everybody did.
— Helen D., Perth, 31 October 2026
Write to the Editor