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The label launched The Smiths and during the 1980s became synonymous with gritty musical authenticity.
Now Rough Trade, which had its origins in a pokey music store on Kensington Park Road, is to open Britain's biggest music-only shop in a direct challenge to the all-conquering power of the internet.
Set to open its doors to the public in the next two months, the store will occupy 5000 feet of floorspace, sell both CDs and vinyl, and be used as a venue for gigs.
It will officially open near Brick Lane in the east end of London in the summer and according to those behind the project, the mega-store will "reflect the public appetite for exciting new music".
Stephen Godfroy, a director of Rough Trade music stores, said he could not confirm any specifics surrounding the opening of the new store, but said: "We are looking to make an official announcement in the next few weeks.
"Our aim is to deliver something that we feel has been missing in this country for far too long - that is an environment that celebrates music as an exciting artform, not just another commercial commodity - but on a scale that is a departure from the traditional perception of an independent record shop.
"The music industry seems to have a lot of doom and gloom about it at the moment, despite people's passion for music being as strong as ever. We certainly hope to put some smiles back on faces with something that reflects the true public appetite for exciting new music."
Rough Trade currently has two record stores, one in Neal's Yard in Covent Garden and the other in Talbot Road, near Portobello.
Geoff Travis, who founded the original Rough Trade shop on Kensington Park Road in London in 1976.
From there the music label that signed bands including The Smiths, Parisian punk band Metal Urbain, Stiff Little Fingers and Cabaret Voltaire was launched.
Though the label and the stores split in 1982-3, Mr Travis said: "This is an absolutely brilliant thing for music, and for the east end of London. This will be a place where you can learn about new music, and is the opposite to the Wimpy Bar approach to selling music."
Mr Travis said that although he no longer works at the shop, he still feels "a great deal of kinship with it" and as the label and the shop still share the moniker, they reflect on each other.
"It is the right thing to evolve and lead the way, and a great opportunity to open a shop like this at a time when the media outlets as owned by the mainstream become ever more conservative," he said.
"It will also become a performance space, another rallying point for independent music."
Mr Travis, who bought back the Rough Trade name in 1999 and has since put out records by leading bands such as Arcade Fire, The Libertines, The Strokes and Antony and the Johnsons, said that if the new Rough Trade store in east London takes up the challenge of rivalling the world-famous Amoeba store in San Francisco he will be "very happy".
Jon Webster, director of independent member services at the record label body the BPI, said: "The concept of this store is incredibly laudable in these times," he said.
"It's a very tough market for recorded music at the moment. While there has never been a time that more albums have been released, it has never been tougher for small labels to get music onto the high street."
He hoped the new store "would become a destination, and have its place on tourist maps."
- INDEPENDENT
