please empty your brain below

I thought that Hatchards was part of the Dillons/Waterstones group?

dg writes: Ah yes, Hatchards (established 1797) has been gobbled up. But I still feel minded to leave it in.

Oh and in Twickenham we have Langstons, which is a fine establishment, used to have a cat and when it died they put a china cat in the window where it always used to sit.

Crockatt & Powell is SE1 not SW1.

In SE1 we also have the Riverside Bookshop at Hay's Galleria, London Bridge.

hey, I was going to say that.

website - Langtons

I am pretty sure there is an independent book shop on clapham hugh street. No idea what it's called though... sorry!

Stoke Newington Bookshop, Stoke Newington High Street, N16

Not forgetting one of the newest additions to the map, Wood Green's 'Big Green Bookshop'. Not that big, not that green (until you go inside) but very much independent.

http://www.biggreenbookshop.com/

Oh, and the Broadway Bookshop, Broadway Market, E8

The Open Book in Richmond. TW postcode I assume. Very good and better than Langton's now that it is more cafe than bookshop.

Spot on so far, thanks. Any more?

The Kennington Bookshop, also SE11. Replaced a failed video shop. And they say the written word is dead...

Oh and there's also a bookshop in Kew village called the Kew Bookshop (TW, I think)

There is 'The Bargain Bookshop' , Station Road, E4. I'm not sure if the 'Book Box' in Chatsworth Road E5 is still going or not, nor the Roundabout Bookshop in Mare Street, Hackney.

dg writes: Book Box is for kids. The Roundabout 'bookshop' is a few books at the back of a newsagent, and closing down soon.

oh and Books@Hoddesden

dg writes: Hoddesdon's in Herts, sorry

World's End, Chelsea

Broadway Bookshop, Hackney

also, what about all the stalls at spitalfields market

dg writes: World's End is a 2nd hand bookshop

Prospero's Books on Crouch End Broadway, N8.

There's the Willesden bookshop in NW10.

dg writes: That's a specialist (children's) bookshop, innit?

There's My Back Pages (SW12), which is mostly used books but they do sell new ones as well.

dg writes: Just visited. Very second hand.

It's a few years since I was last there (I did work experience there for a fortnight circa 1999), but the Willesden Bookshop was a general high-street bookshop with an added speciality in multi-lingual children's books, so I think it probably deserves to be included on your map.

Can't think of anything to add at the moment, but I'm glad you've got the Beckenham one. It's a couple of streets away from my dentist so I always drop in when I'm in the area. Thoroughly recommended.

Hatchards' Wikipedia entry suggests that since Waterstones was acquired by HMV, the company's structure has changed and it is now a sister company to Waterstones rather than a subsidiary. That might just be down to loose phrasing though.

West End Books, West End Lane, West Hampstead, NW6.

There's one , the name of which escapes me (could it be, illogically, "Camden Books"?), in the subways of Old Street Station....presumably EC2?

There's also the Kirkdale Bookshop in Sydenham, SE26

Yes, the Willesden bookshops's still a general bookshop with a specialisation as James says. Their website is a bit misleading.

dg writes. Just been there. So it is...

From the SE: Chener Books on Lordship Lane in East Dulwich; Village Books in Dulwich village; Review bookshop on Bellenden Road in Peckham. Go SE! Presumably it's something to do with rents, rather than us all being terribly literary out here...

Can't find websites for Chener Books or the Village Bookshop, but here's the very pretty site for Review.

Kilburn Books, Kilburn Bridge

Queens Park Books, Salusbury Road

Titles of Penge

There is one near the town hall in Crouch End but I have forgotten the name

We're including specialist and second-hand bookshops as well, so you'd have to sort through them, but you might find our Google map of London bookshops useful: http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/
ms...b1e1e0444b82e66


(It's also a work in progress.)

There was the Banana Bookshop in Covent Garden Market, but I don't know if it'll fit in to your map for two reasons:

a) I think it may have been part of The Works.
b) Last time I was there a couple of weeks ago, it seemed to have closed.

It's a shame BooksAt don't seem to have branches on the other side of the M25, as they're pretty good (they have a nice little branch in Hertford). Hoddesdon does have an EN postcode though.

The Daunts website mentions further branches in Belsize Park, Hampstead & Holland Park - have you got the Belsize Park one in there?

dg writes: Yup, two shops in NW3.

There's a bookshop in Exmouth Market too, though I can't think of the name at the moment.

dg writes: That's Metropolitan Books, EC1.

Joseph's of Temple Fortune (Finchley Road, NW11) is an amazing little gem. (Last time I looked at its website it more or less implied that the bookshop - there is also a lebanese restaurant attached - and they also have been known to do the odd film screening - is primarily of Jewish interest, but it is an all-round general bookshop as well.)

Wow, that's 40 bookshops so far!

I'm quietly disappointed how many of them have no official web presence whatsoever.

I'd still like to be convinced that the following bookshops exist, and sell normal new books:
• Bargain Bookshop E4
• Primrose Hill Books NW1
• Eltham Books SE9
• Oval Books SW9


And what is it with SE London and reading?

Glad to see Clapham Books in there.

Hi, I am a long-time reader of your blog, first time poster. How about The Bookshop at 150 High Rd, Loughton, Essex IG10?

Sorry, me again. Just wanted to say I could not find a website for the above store at Loughton.

Hello first-time-poster.
Alas, Loughton's not quite in London.

Nothing else to do here in SE London but read.

There's another bookshop in Richmond called Houben's. It's down a side lane off George Street and combines new books upstairs with second-hand books in the basement.

persephone books on lambs conduit st - i'd live there

Unfortunately, The Modern Book Company, late of Praed Street, is now a dreary supermarket. Building a big block of flats in front of it probably sealed its fate. People can't eat books. (No doubt some variety act will disprove this though.)

Oval Books has gone — I was down there the other week looking for it and the people in the hardware store next door told me it disappeared a few years ago. Luckily my trip wasn't wasted, as I found the Kennington Bookshop instead (already mentioned by another commenter).

We have Beach road bookshop and x-zyte book shop also bukhoue bookshop-ALAS
These are S.E Thailand and not S.E London sorry

There's this one too: http://www.allinlondon.co.uk/dir...y/1278/
3138.php


dg writes: The Owl's on the map already, Frankie.

As well as the Muswell Hill Bookshop (owned by the same people who run Prospero's Books in Crouch End, I think), there is a a really excellent children's bookshop just across the road, at 29 Fortis Green Road.

Re oval books - are you sure? I work a few streets away and am pretty sure it's still there and I bought a card in there last year. But it may be a reconstructed memory!

Actually I think it is mainly a children's/christian bookshop, maybe?

http://www.stockwellpark.com/cla...al-
bookshop.htm


I jumped into the car to check out one of the relatively local possibilities. You can cross Eltham Books off your list. The address that I found via Google (5 Chequers Parade) is now the Supreme Card & Party Shop.

Just asked the Mrs, who is an English teacher. She suggested Primrose Hill Books. Then I spotted that in the same list as Eltham Books above. On the evidence of its website, it's still very much a going concern.

Bargain Bookshop (Station Rd, E4) is more along the lines of one of those publishers clearing houses that sell lots of hardbacks cheaply, IMHO Chingford is still CRYING out for a proper bookshop (I'd even accept a chain).

Brendan....Hmmmm...Compost Brendan?

So...
• Bargain Bookshop E4 - no
Primrose Hill Books NW1 - yes
Eltham Books SE9 - no
Oval Books SW9 - probably no

susie wrote: "Re oval books - are you sure? I work a few streets away and am pretty sure it's still there and I bought a card in there last year. But it may be a reconstructed memory!"

I'm not sure what it's turned into but I seem to remember it looked like an estate agent or an art gallery or something? Very bare inside, anyway. It's definitely not called Oval Books any more. The people in the shop next door told me Oval Books had gone a few years ago, and the staff member I spoke to in the Kennington Bookshop said that Oval Books closed down before her bookshop started up.

My mate owns a secound hand book shop just off Wimbledon highstreet, SW19. 'Copperfields'.. dnt have a website doe... quite specialist but they stock lotsa best sellers aswell !

lol, and Titles of Penge is just down the road from me, my sister used to have guitar lessons there...think they have a palm reader there now to...aswell as a music shop! lol, must check it out again sum time!

Is the fantastic Regency Bookshop, Victoria Road, Surbiton KT6 still there? Very friendly and enthusiastic owners,would get anything for you.

hello,
there is a bookshop... I used to walk past it quite often, on the way from Putney Bridge station (District line) to Putney Bridge itself. I ddin't even remember the name until I looked it up on Yell online just now. It's called Dolphin Books and Prints, and is on Riverbank house, Putney Bridge approach.
I think this is also the one that gets mentioned in Belle de Jour's "Diary of a London Call Girl" where she says - " I was walking down the fag end of Fulham high street last night and found an old bookshop...fortunately it was closed as I had money and have a tendency to spend it with fusty old booksellers".
Anyway, it looks atmostpheric, though it was always closed when i went by at weekends. If you want to investigate it, the walk over Putney Bridge and along the river down there is really nice as well

Not sure if this Guardian link is any help?
http://books.guardian.co.uk/
shop...1398384,00.html


Also, Ocean Books in Stokey does new and old.
http://www.n16mag.com/shopping.htm

Am I your only reader who has lived in SW7?

I see no sign of the wonderful Gloucester Road Bookshop in your list. It's a few block south of the Tube Station on Gloucester Rd. A very good selection of second hand books at reasonable prices.

Hmm, I need convincing that the following aren't second-hand bookshops (or mostly second-hand). Not much evidence online...
• Regency Bookshop KT6
• Ocean Books N16
• Dolphin Books SW6
• Gloucester Road Bookshop SW7


dg, Regency was charmingly olde worlde,very narrow and long, and stocked only new titles. Needs 2008 confirming by a local though. I left at the end of 2002. Only just inside London,too. Quite a bit of KT6 is in Surrey, which curiously has its County Hall inside Greater London. I am sure you will report on this oddity and other borough facts in due course....

It's reassuring to see that the number of bookshop comments is approaching doughnut/porridge levels.

Gloucester Road Bookshop is second-hand, or mainly so, but exceptionally lovely.

You can find Gloucester Road Bookshop info on abebooks.

I first discovered the shop in 1984 when I lived around the corner in Rosary Gardens. The shop was still there, pretty much unchanged, last time I was in the neighbourhood in 2005.

Basically a small shopfront and a basement packed full of very tempting reasonably priced second hand books.

A bookshop that sells NEW books that no-one seems to have mentioned yet:

Housmans, 5 Caledonian Road, Kings Cross, London N1 (tel 020-7837 4473)

Always fun to pop into to check out the latest radical-chic.

And more:
Very good children's bookshop in Richmond, or is that too specialist?

The Lion & Unicorn Bookshop, 19 King Street, Richmond, Surrey TW9 1ND 020 8940 0483

If you're still doing this, there is Nomad Books, Fulham Road SW6. Big travel section but also new fiction and popular non-fiction.

Pan Books at the SW3 end of Fulham Road is now a Daunts branch.

SW13 has the Barnes Bookshop, I think the address is Church Street.











TridentScan | Privacy Policy