London Bookstores: The Ultimate Guide to Getting Lost in Books (and Bloomsbury)
London Bookstores: The Ultimate Guide to Getting Lost in Books (and Bloomsbury)
Welcome to London, where it rains 364 days a year and the only logical response is to spend all your time in bookstores. Fortunately for you, this soggy metropolis happens to be one of the world's greatest cities for book lovers. With more bookstores per square mile than sunny days per year, London is basically heaven for bibliophiles - if heaven smelled like old paper and disappointment from your bank account.
Once famously disorganized (books were arranged by publisher, because why make things easy?), Foyles has since modernized while maintaining its chaotic charm. You'll find everything from academic tomes to graphic novels, plus a café where you can recover from the existential crisis induced by seeing how many books you'll never have time to read.
What to expect: Multiple floors of literary temptation, a café for when you need to sit down and contemplate your book-buying addiction, and staff who actually know what they're talking about (shocking, we know).
Waterstones Piccadilly: Europe's Largest Bookstore (They Won't Let You Forget It)
Location: 203-206 Piccadilly, W1J 9LE
This isn't just a bookstore - it's eight floors of bibliomania spread across a former Art Deco gentleman's club. Waterstones Piccadilly is Europe's largest bookstore, which means it's the perfect place to get lost while looking for the toilet.
The building itself is gorgeous, with original 1930s features that make you feel fancy just for buying a paperback thriller. There's a restaurant, multiple bars (because reading is thirsty work), and enough books to keep you browsing until the next geological epoch. The fifth-floor bar offers stunning views of Piccadilly, perfect for posting on Instagram and pretending you're cultured.
What to expect: Tourists taking selfies with books they won't buy, at least three different sections where you'll think "I should read more of this," and a very real risk of bankruptcy.
Daunt Books: Instagram's Favorite London Bookstore
Location: 83 Marylebone High Street, W1U 4QW (plus multiple locations)
Daunt Books is the bookstore equivalent of a Jane Austen adaptation. Beautiful, slightly intimidating, and makes you wish you were more refined. The Marylebone flagship is housed in an Edwardian building with oak galleries, stained glass windows, and lighting so flattering you'll look good even after staying up until 3am reading "just one more chapter."
What makes Daunt special among London bookstores is its travel book organization: fiction and non-fiction are arranged by country, which is brilliant unless you're looking for a specific author and can't remember if they're Irish or Scottish. The shop specializes in travel literature, making it the perfect place to plan trips you can't afford because you spent all your money on books.
What to expect: A queue of people taking photos for Instagram, beautiful Edwardian architecture that makes you feel like you're in a BBC period drama, and an overwhelming urge to quit your job and become a travel writer.
Hatchards: The Poshest of London Bookstores
Location: 187 Piccadilly, W1J 9LE
Established in 1797, Hatchards is older than your great-great-great-grandparents and wants you to know it. This is the bookstore where you instinctively lower your voice and straighten your posture. With royal warrants and enough heritage to sink a battleship, Hatchards is where you go to feel inadequately educated while spending money you don't have on books you'll definitely read (you won't).
The wood-paneled rooms and creaking floorboards make you feel like you should be wearing a cravat. Staff members have the uncanny ability to recommend exactly the book you didn't know you needed, then judge you silently when you ask where the self-help section is.
What to expect: Feeling simultaneously cultured and inadequate, books you're almost too intimidated to touch, and the distinct possibility that you'll accidentally curtsy to a member of staff.
Hidden Gem London Bookstores
Persephone Books: Where Every Book Comes in Gorgeous Grey
Location: 59 Lamb's Conduit Street, WC1N 3NB
Persephone Books is the bookstore for people who appreciate aesthetic consistency bordering on obsession. They publish forgotten classics by (mostly) women writers, and every single book comes in the same elegant grey cover with different colored endpapers. It's like the Apple Store but for people with actual taste.
This small London bookstore is a testament to curation over quantity. Walking in feels like visiting a particularly literary friend's tastefully minimalist living room. Warning: you will want to buy multiple books just because they look beautiful together on a shelf. This is by design.
What to expect: Book covers so beautiful you'll want to wallpaper your flat with them, staff recommendations that are always spot-on, and a serious threat to your minimalist lifestyle goals.
Housmans: The Radical Bookshop
Location: 5 Caledonian Road, N1 9DX
Established in 1945, Housmans is London's oldest radical bookstore and proof that not all bookstores smell like privilege and expensive coffee. This workers' cooperative specializes in politics, activism, environmentalism, and books that will make your Conservative uncle uncomfortable at Christmas dinner.
Crammed into a space that makes Harry Potter's cupboard under the stairs look spacious, Housmans punches well above its weight in terms of importance. This is where you come for books about dismantling capitalism before ironically spending £40 on said books. The revolution will be well-read.
What to expect: More political badges than you knew existed, staff who are genuinely passionate about social justice, and reading material that will make you question everything you thought you knew about the world.
Stanfords: For When You Need to Escape London
Location: 7 Mercer Walk, Covent Garden, WC2H 9FA
Stanfords has been selling travel books and maps since 1853, back when "travel" meant spending six months on a ship eating hardtack and probably dying of scurvy. Today, it's where Londoners go to plan escapes from London, making it simultaneously the most optimistic and pessimistic of London bookstores.
Spread over three floors, Stanfords has maps, guidebooks, and travel literature for literally everywhere. You can spend hours planning a trip to Mongolia while standing in Covent Garden, surrounded by tourists who are living their best travel life while you're still just reading about it. The staff know an alarming amount about obscure hiking trails in countries you can't pronounce.
What to expect: Walls covered in maps that make you want to quit your job immediately, guidebooks for places you've never heard of but now desperately want to visit, and crushing realization that you'll never have enough vacation days.
Specialist London Bookstores for the Obsessed
Forbidden Planet: For Your Inner Nerd
Location: 179 Shaftesbury Avenue, WC2H 8JR
Forbidden Planet is where geeks gather to worship at the altar of science fiction, fantasy, comics, and graphic novels. This London bookstore doesn't judge you for knowing all the Star Wars expanded universe lore or owning multiple translations of Lord of the Rings. In fact, that's considered basic here.
Spread across two floors, Forbidden Planet offers everything from mainstream superhero comics to obscure manga you'll need to explain to customs. There's also enough merchandise to bankrupt any self-respecting nerd: action figures, t-shirts, and collectibles that will make your non-geek friends raise their eyebrows at your "investment choices."
What to expect: Detailed conversations about which Doctor is best (it's a trap - there's no right answer), more Funko Pops than should legally exist in one location, and staff who speak fluent Klingon (probably).
Gay's the Word: London's LGBTQ+ Bookstore
Location: 66 Marchmont Street, WC1N 1AB
Founded in 1979, Gay's the Word is the UK's oldest LGBTQ+ bookstore and a genuine community institution. This small shop has survived police raids, Section 28, and the internet trying to kill physical bookstores - and it's still here, still vital, still fabulous.
Featured in the film "Pride," Gay's the Word offers fiction, non-fiction, history, politics, and the kind of representation you won't always find in mainstream London bookstores. It's also a community space, hosting events, book clubs, and providing a welcoming environment that's increasingly rare in our digital age.
What to expect: A warm welcome, books you didn't know existed, and possibly tears at the realization that spaces like this are important and need protecting.
Skoob Books: Basement Bargains in Bloomsbury
Location: 66 The Brunswick, WC1N 1AE
Hidden in a basement (because where else would you put 50,000 secondhand books?), Skoob Books is a maze of academic and scholarly texts at prices that won't require selling a kidney. This is where PhD students come to find obscure texts about even more obscure subjects, and where you can pretend you're going to read that 800-page philosophy tome (you're not).
The shop is organized by subject, though "organized" is perhaps generous - it's more like "contained chaos with a vague thematic structure." But that's part of the charm. Skoob is one of those London bookstores where browsing is an adventure and you never know what you'll find, from rare academic texts to surprisingly readable history books.
What to expect: Low ceilings, narrow aisles, books piled to the ceiling, and prices so good you'll convince yourself you need five books on medieval monasticism.
Charming Neighborhood London Bookstores
John Sandoe Books: Chelsea's Literary Secret
Location: 10 Blacklands Terrace, SW3 2SR
Tucked away in Chelsea, John Sandoe Books is the kind of bookstore that makes you want to live in the neighborhood just so you can pop in daily. Crammed into three tiny floors of an 18th-century building, it's chaotic, cozy, and staffed by people who know their stock so intimately it's slightly concerning.
This is peak independent bookstore energy: narrow aisles, books stacked everywhere, tables groaning under literary weight, and staff recommendations that are genuinely worth their weight in gold. Shopping here feels less like a transaction and more like getting book recommendations from your smartest friend.
What to expect: Claustrophobia if you're taller than average, staff who remember what you bought last time, and the overwhelming desire to buy everything they recommend.
Primrose Hill Books: Small Shop, Big Character
Location: 134 Regent's Park Road, NW1 8XL
In the impossibly posh village-within-London that is Primrose Hill, this tiny bookstore serves the local community with charm and excellent curation. It's small enough that you can see the entire stock in about fifteen minutes, but curated so well that you'll want to buy half of it.
This is the kind of neighborhood bookstore that knows its customers, hosts brilliant author events, and somehow always has exactly what you need. Plus, Primrose Hill itself is lovely, so you can buy books then walk them up the hill for a view of London while pretending you're in a Nancy Meyers film.
What to expect: Friendly staff, books you didn't know you wanted, and the temptation to move to Primrose Hill despite rent prices that would make a Saudi prince wince.
Brick Lane Bookshop: East London's Literary Hub
Location: 166 Brick Lane, E1 6RU
Located in the heart of hipster ground zero, Brick Lane Bookshop is an independent shop focusing on art, photography, and counterculture. It's the kind of place where buying a book makes you feel cooler by association. The shop is small but perfectly formed, with a carefully curated selection that leans heavily toward the creative and the radical.
This is one of those London bookstores that feels less like a shop and more like someone's very cool living room that happens to sell books. There's usually good music playing, interesting people browsing, and always the smell of curry wafting in from one of Brick Lane's many restaurants.
What to expect: Books that will look very impressive on your coffee table, art and photography that will inspire you to finally start that creative project, and an overwhelming urge to get bagels immediately after.
Antiquarian and Rare London Bookstores
Maggs Bros Ltd: For Serious Collectors (Or Window Shoppers)
Location: 46 Bedford Square, WC1B 3DP
Maggs Bros has been selling rare books since 1853 in what can only be described as "terrifyingly expensive" fashion. This isn't where you pop in for a beach read - this is where you go to see first editions that cost more than your car. Or your house. Or your firstborn child.
Located in a beautiful Georgian townhouse in Bedford Square, Maggs specializes in rare books, manuscripts, and items that make auction houses weep with joy. You probably can't afford anything here, but browsing is free and will make you feel cultured. Plus, the building itself is gorgeous.
What to expect: Books under glass like crown jewels, prices with more zeros than you thought possible for books, and staff who can immediately tell you're not actually going to buy anything but are too polite to say so.
Peter Harrington: Rare Books That Cost More Than Your Education
Location: 100 Fulham Road, SW3 6HS (plus other locations)
Peter Harrington is another London bookstore where you can view books you'll never own unless you win the lottery. Specializing in first editions, signed copies, and rare books, this is where serious collectors come to spend serious money. The Fulham Road flagship is particularly impressive, with multiple rooms dedicated to different specialties.
Window shopping here is both inspiring and depressing; inspiring because look at all these beautiful books, depressing because you'll never afford that signed Ian Fleming first edition. But hey, looking is free, and the staff are surprisingly welcoming even when you admit you're "just browsing" (translation: definitely not buying).
What to expect: Books in better condition than most humans, prices that require several zeros and possibly a payment plan, and a newfound understanding that books can be investment pieces.
Chain London Bookstores (Yes, They Count Too)
Waterstones: They're Everywhere, and That's Okay
Look, we're book lovers, not chain-store snobs. Waterstones might be a chain, but they've done more to keep British bookstores alive than almost anyone else. With locations across London, they offer reliable stock, author events, and staff who generally know their stuff.
Sure, they're not as characterful as the independents, but sometimes you need a bookstore that's actually open past 6pm, stocks the latest bestseller, and has a toilet. The larger branches (Piccadilly, Gower Street, Trafalgar Square) are genuinely impressive, with multiple floors and proper curation.
What to expect: Books you've actually heard of, consistent opening hours, and the ability to find what you're looking for without asking three different staff members.
How to Properly Experience London Bookstores
The Etiquette of Bookstore Browsing
Don't block the aisles - London bookstores are notoriously cramped. If you're reading in an aisle, you're basically a human roadblock.
Put books back properly - If you take a book off the shelf, put it back in the same spot. Rogue books are the bane of booksellers' existence.
Support the shops - Independent bookstores survive on sales, not Instagram posts. Actually buy something occasionally.
Ask for recommendations - Booksellers are walking encyclopedias. Use them (politely).
Don't price-check on Amazon while standing in the shop - This is the bookstore equivalent of emotional warfare.
Planning Your London Bookstore Crawl
The beauty of London bookstores is their concentration.
