BOOKSHOPS

The Booksellers' Association

The Booksellers Association

Location: 6 Bell Yard, WC2A 2JR

Bookshop.org

An umbrella body for buying books from independent booksellers.

Cecil Court

Along both sides of Cecil Court there are a number of small shops that are occupied, for the most part, by second-hand book dealers. This congenial state of affairs is the result of having been nurtured by the ground landlords the Marquises of Salisbury.

Location: Cecil Court, WC2N 4HE (purple, yellow)

Website: www.cecilcourt.co.uk

Charing Cross Road

Charing Cross Road is the principal location for bookshops in London. The road's northern section - above Cambridge Circus - has shops that sell new books. The second-hand trade and specialist booksellers tended to be located in the road's southern portion.

Location: Charing Cross Road, WC2H 8AA (blue, yellow)

See Also: STREETS, SPECIALISED

Foyles

Foyles was founded in 1906 by the brothers William and Gilbert Foyle. The sibs tried to enter the Civil Service by competitive examination, but neither of them succeeded in doing so. As a result, they had no occupation but they did have the textbooks that they had used to prepare for the exam. They sold these and as a result decided that bookselling might be their vocation. They had a series of premises before they established themselves on Charing Cross Road. One of these was in Cecil Court. The location proved to be a great success. This attracted the attention of the police who raided the shop under the belief that it was a front for illegal bookmaking (gambling). William became the dominant force within the business. Over time five buildings were merged with one another. During its heyday the four-storey building (1929) was reputed to have more than 30 miles of shelves.

In 1945 Christina Foyle, William's daughter, took over the management of Foyles. The way in which the shop was run under her antagonised many of its customers. Many of the oddities were looked upon by the staff and customers as being either inefficient or perverse.¹ Even after the procedure for buying a book had been simplified, it still involved the would-be purchaser finding the book, taking it to a sales desk, obtaining an invoice for it, going to a second desk, paying, having the invoice stamped to indicate that the due payment had been made, returning to the first desk, presenting the document, and finally collecting the book. A rival bookstore had a poster mounted upon the nearest bus shelter to the shop. This read Foyled again? Try Dillons .

One of the quirks that Ms Foyle's maintained was having a manned tea trolley that roved the store to furnish her employees with refreshments. Originally, this was to stop workers going away from their workplaces; with time it may have been an instance of employer largesse. For many years it was operated by Erica, a Swiss woman. Her wares were not intended for people who were browsing in the store. Therefore, she frequently had to fend off members of the public who expressed a desire for opportune repast.

In 1999, on her deathbed, Christina bequeathed control of the shop to her nephew Christopher Foyle. Subsequently, computerised tills were introduced and the stock was no longer displayed by publisher but in conventional bookselling categories. In 2002 Foyles was reported to be in the process of re-inventing itself as being more than just a retailing outlet; it was seeking to become a visitor destination in the way that Hamleys was. The reinvention was successful.

In 2014 the new Foyle's opened in what had been the St Martin School of Art. The shop is arranged around a central atrium. The Sex Pistols played their initial gig in what is now the children's department.

Location: 107-111 Charing Cross Road, WC2H 0DT. The shop's new home. (blue, orange)

113-119 Charing Cross Road, WC2H 0EB. The site of the old shop. (blue, brown)

Website: www.foyles.co.uk

¹. Until the 1990s Foyles had round-pin electrical sockets.

Foyles Literary Luncheons

In 1930 Christina Foyle launched the Foyles Literary Luncheons at The Holborn Restaurant. The nineteen-year-old was inspired to do so by an experience that she had had while she had been serving in her family's bookshop. An elderly gentleman had asked her to recommend something that he might enjoy reading during a train journey. She had suggested John Galsworthy's The Forsyte Saga, a volume that she herself had just finished. She had described the work in glowing terms. The gentleman had bought the book and had left the shop. Soon afterwards, he had returned and had handed the volume back to her. It had been inscribed For the young lady who liked my book - John Galsworthy . The encounter had left her with the belief that booklovers would enjoy some form of personal contact with authors.

The poet Stephen Spender regularly attended the occasions. During one, he took exception to a remark that had been made about the obscurity of modern poetry. He stormed out of the room in which the meal was being served. He promptly discovered that he had stormed into the kitchen and so had to go back into the main room and make a second, somewhat less dramatic exit from it.

During one luncheon Sir Walter Gilbey of the gin-making family spoke very tediously for an hour and a half. A man who was sitting opposite Christina's father William fell asleep. Mr Foyle tapped him with his toastmaster s gavel. The fellow awoke and exclaimed Hit me again, I can still hear him.

The poet Sir Stephen Spender regularly attended the occasions. During one he took exception to a remark that had been made about the obscurity of modern poetry. He stormed out of the room in which the meal was being served. He promptly discovered that he had stormed into the kitchen and so had to go back into the main room and make a second, somewhat less dramatic exit from it.

In October 2000 the Foyle's literary luncheon celebrated its 70th anniversary. The guests included Margaret Thatcher, a former Conservative Prime Minister, and Denis Healey, one of her great Labour antagonists. He approached her, bowed, and kissed her hand. Subsequently, Christopher Foyle asked Healey if he had seen what he had seen. Certainly not - I was trying to bite it orff! came the reply.

Grant & Cutler

Grant & Cutler was a foreign-language booksellers that had a stock that ranges across numerous languages. The business was founded in 1936. It was acquired by Foyles. The Great Marlborough Street shop was closed.

Location: 55-57 Great Marlborough Street, W1F 7AY ()

Website: www.grantandcutler.com

Hatchard's

Hatchard s is a most congenial bookshop.

John Hatchard opened a bookshop at No. 173 Piccadilly in 1797. Four years later he moved to No. 187. In Hatchard's time the shop was as much a social meeting place for the literary-minded as it was a bookshop.

Location: 187 Piccadilly, W1J 9LE (orange, yellow)

Website: www.hatchards.co.uk

Heywood Hill

Location: 10 Curzon Street, W1J 5HH (red, pink)

Website: www.heywoodhill.com

Independent Bookshops

In 2022 it was reported that independent bookshops were at their highest number since 2013.

Website: https://uk.bookshop.org/independent/bookshop

The London Review Bookshop

The London Review Bookshop.

Location: 14 Bury Place, WC1A 2JL. Next door (at No. 16) is the London Review Cake Shop. (purple, turquoise)

Website: www.londonreviewbookshop.co.uk

Newham Bookshop

Newham Bookshop is a fine independent bookshop.

Location: 743-745 Barking Road, E13 9ER

Website: www.newhambooks.co.uk

John Sandoe Books

John Sandoe Books is a delightful, compact, two-storey bookshop.

In 1957 John Sandoe and Felicity Gwynne¹ established themselves as booksellers in premises that had formerly housed a poodle parlour. The former's grandmother was shocked that the shop windows were not fitted with blinds that could be drawn down on Sundays. Sandoe was democratically inclined, only ever addressing one customer as Sir (Lord Hailsham the Lord Chancellor).² Physically, the business expanded sideways, taking over space that had been occupied by a dressmaking business, and upwards, where there had been a secretarial agency.

During the early 1980s Ms Gwynne left the business. In 1989 Sandoe sold it to a group that was composed of both colleagues and customers.

Location: 10 Blacklands Terrace, SW3 2SR (red, red)

Website: https://johnsandoe.com

¹. Ms Gwynne was the sister of the food writer Elizabeth David.

². In England and Wales, the Lord Chancellor ranks second in precedence to the sovereign. Except in the City of London.

W.H. Smith

In 1848 London & North-Western awarded W.H. Smith a concession to sell books and newspapers in all of its London railway stations. He paid 1500 for the right. He opened his first concession in Euston Station.

In 1848 the publishing house Routledge launched Routledge's Railway Library with James Fenimore Cooper's novel The Pilot.

Location: Euston Railway Station, Euston Road, NW1 2RT (red, brown)

Website: www.whsmith.co.uk/books

Waterstone's

Tim Waterstone imported into Britain the American concept of user-friendly bookstores - large stocks, knowledgeable assistants, and late opening hours. The first Waterstone bookstore opened in 1982 in a Charing Cross Road property that Christina Foyle had leased to the bookseller.

The Piccadilly Waterstone's occupies a stylish building that was originally the Simpson store (1936).

Location: 203-206 Piccadilly, W1J 9HD (purple, blue)

Website: www.waterstones.com

Dillons

1936 Una Dillon opened a bookshop with an 800 loan. She chose to locate it in Bloomsbury because the district possessed the British Museum, several colleges of the University of London, and the offices of a number of publishing houses. She was careful to maintain those parts of her stock that were of interest to the non-academic reader (and indeed to academics when they were not being scholarly).

Miss Dillon moved her business from its Store Street premises to its present site. The shop came to occupy the whole of the south side of Torrington Place between Malet Street and Gower Street. In 1956 the bookseller sold the business to the university. In 1967 she retired as the managing director of Dillons. A decade later the University of London sold the business (Miss Dillon then retired from the Dillons board). In 1999 it was announced that the Dillons brand was going to be wound up.

Location: Waterstone s, 82 Gower Street, WC1E 6EQ (purple, yellow)

Website: www.waterstones.com/bookshops/gower-street

David Backhouse 2024