Does anyone know a store in London that is the equivalent of Radio Shack here in the US? I know what I'm looking for (I don't need to rely on their (lack of) electronic expertise). I'll be staying in Aldwych over a long weekend. Thanks.

Maplin is probably the closest high-street option. Or take a walk up Tottenham Court Road, which has plenty of independent electronics shops.

You could try Richer Sounds

Their website http://www.richersounds.com/
will give the nearest branch.
Their staff actually do have a lot of expertise and they won't try to sell you an expensive item if a cheaper one will do the job.

I think Richersounds is more of a HiFi shop, rather than an electronic component retailer like Maplins. As I don't know quite what radioshack sells, it is difficult to comment, but Maplin took over from Tandy who did occassionally sell equimen branded as Radioshack.

http://www.maplin.co.uk/ is the website for Maplin - it should give you an idea if this is what you are looking for.

Depending on what you actually looking for - Maplins probably is your best bet -- everything from Batteries/cables/memory to components to TVs.

How about Dixons?

Having lived in the states and now ireland Maplin is the Radio shack of the UK and Irl for little gadget geek things. My other half loves the place!

Dixons no longer exists, after numerous corporate takeovers it was "Rebranded" as Currys digital.