SPECIALISTBOOKSHOPS

SPECIALIST BOOKSHOPS

Architectural Bookshops

The Architectural Association Bookshop

The Architectural Association is a university-level school of architecture. Its Bedford Square premises include a bookshop that is dedicated to architectural matters.

The Association also has its own small publishing business - Bedford Press.

Location: 33 Bedford Square, WC1B 3ES (blue, red)

Website: https://aabookshop.net

R.I.B.A. Bookshops

R.I.B.A. Bookshops is an architectural bookshop chain. Its flagship outlet is located on the ground floor of the Portland Place headquarters of its parent body The Royal Institute of British Architects.

Location: 66 Portland Place, W1B 1AD (blue, red)

Website: www.ribabooks.com

Art Bookshops

See Also: GALLERIES

Koenig Books

Location: The Serpentine Gallery, Kensington Gardens, W2 3XA (orange, yellow)

80 Charing Cross Road, WC2H 0BF (blue, orange)

Website: www.serpentinegalleries.org/visit/the-serpentine-shop www.buchhandlung-walther-koenig.de

Tate Britain Bookshop

Tate Britain Bookshop is a large art bookshop that is located on Tate Britain s basement level.

Location: Tate Britain, 25 Sumner Street, SE1 9JZ. In the north-western portion of the basement. (blue, brown)

Website: www.tate.org.uk/visit/tate-modern/turbine-hall-shop

Whitechapel Gallery Bookshop

Whitechapel Gallery Bookshop.

Location: 77-82 Whitechapel High Street, E1 7QX (purple, turquoise)

Website: www.whitechapelgallery.org/visit/bookshop

Children's Bookshops

See Also: CHILDREN's LITERATURE

The Alligator's Mouth

The Alligator's Mouth was opened by people who had worked for the closed The Lion & The Unicorn bookshop.

Location: 2a Church Court, Richmond, TW9 1JL

Website: www.thealligatorsmouth.co.uk

Food and Cookery Bookshops

See Also: CHEFS; RESTAURANTS

Books for Cooks

Books for Cooks sells books about food and cookery. The firm was founded in 1983 by Heidi Lascelles. The shop has a kitchen at its rear.

Ms Lascelles retired from the business in 2001.

Location: 4 Blenheim Crescent, W11 1NN (red, pink)

Website: www.booksforcooks.com

Clarissa Dickson Wright

Clarissa Dickson Wright was born into an affluent but highly dysfunctional family. In 1968 she became the youngest woman to be called to the Bar. She underwent a protracted period of alcoholism. She became the manager of the Books For Cooks bookshop in Notting Hill. She and Jennifer Paterson became television celebrities through the food show Two Fat Ladies.

Foreign-Language Bookshops

See Also: PEOPLES & CULTURES

The Hellenic Book Service

The Hellenic Book Service, Greek and Latin specialists.

Location: 89 Fortress Road, NW5 1AG

Website: www.hellenicbookservice.com

The Italian Bookshop

A website of The European Bookshop.

Location: The European Bookshop, 123 Gloucester Road, SW7 4TE (purple, red)

Website: www.italianbookshop.co.uk

Libraire La Page

Libraire La Page.

Location: 7 Harrington Road, SW7 3ES (red, brown)

Website: www.librairelapage.com

Saqi Bookshop

Saqi Bookshop was London's Arabic language bookshop. It was founded in Westbourne Grove in 1979 by Mai Ghoussoub (1952-2007), a Maronite Lebanese writer and artist, and her childhood friend Andr Gaspard. In 1983 the business also started publishing books.

Location: 26 Westbourne Grove, W2 5RH (red, blue)

Website: https://saqibooks.com

Gay

See Also: GAY & LESBIAN

Gay's The Word

Gay's The Word is a gay and lesbian bookshop that was inspired by the Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop. The shop was opened in 1979. It has been through many travails. Until then gay bookshops had been male-oriented porn shops. For the first fifteen years of its operation the shop was shuttered after it had closed.

In 1984 Customs officers raided its premises looking for imported material. Amongst the books that were taken away were novels by the American writer Armistead Maupin. A defence of the shop's staff was launched within the week; the publishing industry was supportive, particularly Penguin Books. Two years later the charges were dropped and the books that had been seized returned. This was because in parallel a company called Conegate had been charged with importing sex toys. It had the financial resources to use the appellate system and eventually obtained a ruling that it could not be accused of importing obscene items because similar objects were being made in the U.K.. The principle was held to cover books.

Location: 66 Marchmont Street, WC1N 1AB (blue, turquoise)

Website: www.gaystheword.co.uk

¹. Customs dubbed the raid Operation Tiger. It was named after a cat that belonged to one of the officers.

Independent Press Bookshop

bookartbookshop

bookartbookshop is a small independent bookshop that sells artists books and books published by small presses.

Location: 17 Pitfield Street, N1 6HB (blue, pink)

Website: www.bookartbookshop.com

Legal Bookshop

See Also: LAWYERS

Wildy & Sons

Wildy & Sons is a legal bookselling business. The business was founded in 1830, originally occupying premises in Lincoln's Inn Archway.

Location: Lincoln's Inn Archway, Carey Street, WC2A 2JD (purple, turquoise)

Website: www.wildy.com

Hammicks Legal Bookshop

In 2019 Wildy acquired Hammicks

Location: 191-192 Fleet Street, WC2A 1LF (blue, yellow)

Website: wwwhammickslegal.co.uk

London Bookshops

See Also: LONDON

Guildhall Library Bookshop

Guildhall Library Bookshop sold books and material about London and its past. It focussed upon the City of London and the boroughs that border it.

Location: 5 Aldermanbury, EC2V 7HH (orange, turquoise)

Website: https://shop.cityoflondon.gov.uk/collections/books

The Museum of London

The Museum of London has a bookshop that stocks books about London.

Location: 150 London Wall, EC2Y 5HN. Former home.

1 Warehouse, West India Quay, E14 4AL

Website: www.museumoflondonshop.co.uk

New Beacon Books

New Beacon Books is a bookshop and centre for Afro-Caribbean culture. It was founded in 1966 by John La Rose (d.2006), a Trinidadian, and his partner Sarah White, as a publishing business. The bookshop has been on Stroud Green Road since 1973.

Location: 76 Stroud Green Road, Finsbury Park, N4 3EN

Website: www.newbeaconbooks.com

Remaindered Books

Bookshops that carry stocks of remaindered books include Judd Books, and the basement of the Gower Street branch of Waterstone s.

Location: Judd Books, 82 Marchmont Street, WC1N 1AG (orange, red)

Website: https://juddbooks.com

Round Table Books

In 2019 the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education published a report that revealed that just 1% of the c.9000 children's books that had been published in 2001 had had a central character who was Black, Asian, oir from an ethic minority. The Round Table Books bookshop was set up to address the issue. Its funds came from crowdfunding and Penguin.

Science Fiction and Fantasy Bookshops

See Also: HORROR FICTION

Forbidden Planet Entertainment MegaStore

Forbidden Planet is a fantasy and science fiction bookshop. Its fascia declares it to be The Cult Entertainment Store . Whether this is meant to communicate that that it is a store that sells Cult Entertainment or an Entertainment Store that has achieved cult status is unclear. Either road, Forbidden Planet seems to be held in warm regard by its customers.

Location: 179 Shaftesbury Avenue, WC2H 8JR (red, turquoise)

See Also: SCIENCE FICTION

Website: www.forbiddenplanet.com

Theatre and Performance Bookshops

See Also: THEATRE RELATED

The Calder Bookshop & Theatre

Location: 51 The Cut, SE1 8LF

Website: https://calderbookshop.com

Dress Circle

Dress Circle styles itself as The Greatest Showbiz Shop In The World . In 2013 the business closed its Monmouth Street shop and became an online retailer.

Website: www.dresscircle.london

Samuel French

Samuel French publishes and leases plays and has a bookshop that sells scripts and theatre related texts.

Thomas Hailes Lacy was an actor-turned-theatrical bookseller. He started publishing playscripts. In 1859 the American publisher Samuel French visited London. He and Lacy met one another. The two men became business partners, representing one another's interests on either side of the Atlantic. In 1872 French decided to settle in Britain. The following year he bought Lacy's business.

Concord Theatricals acquired Samuel French in 2018.

Location: The Royal Court Theatre Sloane Square, SW1W 8AS (purple, red)

Website: www.concordtheatricals.co.uk/shop www.concord.com/samuel-french

The Royal National Theatre Bookshop

The Royal National Theatre has a bookshop that is focused upon theatre.

Location: Upper Ground, SE1 9PX

Website: www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/your-visit/bookshop

Travel Bookshops

See Also: EXPLORATION

Daunt Books

Daunt Books is a bookshop chain in which books are principally arranged by country and region. The business was founded by James Daunt. He did so as a result of booking a last-minute holiday. He discovered that booksellers tended to display their wares in such a manner that it was awkward to find books about a specific country.

Location: 61 Cheapside, EC2V 6AX (blue, purple)

193 Haverstock Hill, Belsize Park NW3 4QL

112-114 Holland Park Avenue, W11 4UA (purple, yellow)

83 Marylebone High Street, W1U 4QW (blue, grey)

51 South End Road, Hampstead, NW3 2QB

Website: https://dauntbooks.co.uk

Stanfords

Stanfords is a noted bookshop and map-selling business. The firm was founded in 1853 at No. 6 Charing Cross Road. By the end of the 19^thC the business had been appointed as sole agent to the Ordnance Survey and had received a royal warrant as cartographers to Queen Victoria. In 1901 it moved into its premises in Covent Garden.

In the Hound of The Baskervilles (1902) Sherlock Holmes sends Dr Watson to Stanfords to buy a map of Dartmoor.

Stanfords moved from Long Acre to Mercer Walk in 2019.

Location: 7 Mercer Walk, WC2H 9FA (grey, orange)

Website: www.stanfords.co.uk

The Travel Bookshop

The Travel Bookshop sells a variety of travel books. Within the shop these are arranged by country. The business was founded in 1979.

Location: 13 Blenheim Crescent, W11 2EE (orange, brown)

Website: http://thetravelbookshop.com

David Backhouse 2024