Good bookshops in London

The answer is yes, but probably more than can sensibly be listed and it rather depends on your area of interest (*loads* of great art bookshops, for example but only one music one as far as I know, a few radical / political ones here and there).

Specialist shops don't tend to be cheap though. In fact quite the opposite. Of course, Julio could have been asking for second hand places in which case ignore the above, go look at the thread which Gareth's magic blue words points to.

i'd love to know where some wizardly arcane bookshops are at. pref run by blind old men.

Example: I was relatively recently introduced to Leo Perutz. I found two or three of his novels fairly easily, and now I seem to find one about every four months. When I run across one it's an occasion for celebration.

I could buy them all on the internet today if I wanted to take the fun out of the shopping and if I wanted to shell out approx. 5 times the price I'll eventually pay when I track them down.

But when you *don't* know what you're looking for, obviously that's where the interweb can't compete.

''The answer is yes, but probably more than can sensibly be listed and it rather depends on your area of interest (*loads* of great art bookshops, for example but only one music one as far as I know, a few radical / political ones here and there).''

this is it. places that have books on art or books on politics, the occult, out of print stuff, etc.

''Jerry's right if you want to read something *right now* or you want to give up the thrill of the chase. I love looking at/for/through books, stumbling across things I didn't know about.''

Tim is correct, I am not looking for any particurlar titles at all and record shopping is great becuz i stumble upon things all the time and that's what I want with books.

can anybody give me some shops (Tim again). Just list a few of your specialised favourites. Thanks in advance.

the above is what stevo was saying on another thread but that ties in nicely with this one. I want books on religions, politics, etc, etc...

I liked the Oxfam bookstore on Marylebone High Street.

Problem is that it is generally accepted that the concept of spirituality belongs in the realm of airy, pseudo notions of supernatural bullshit rather than being rooted in the shitty, everyday reality of being a leaking hunk of animal humanity.

Which is not to downgrade the idea of spirituality - 'sjust another word attempting to encapsulate the entirety of being sentient and conscious.

Compendium in Camden was one of the best shops anywhere for this. it closed. civilisation ended.

There's still Central Books in Holborn for the left/politics/world stuff; specialists around the British Museum for archaeology/other cultures/witchcraft and magic; and the travel bookshop over in Marylebone.

I'm a frequent visitor to Primrose Hill Books but I find them a little rude in their.

yeah, that's it. some good suggestions here jon.

If the latter, there is a v. gd occult bkshop on Cecil Court, just off Charing Cross Rd, along w/ a number of other interesting specialist bkshops.

And I always forget to mention the bkshop in the ICA, which stocks lots of gd (and bad) theory/art crit etc.

ICA is first rate. good call.

Everything is half-price in Blackwell's on charing cross road. Relocation sale. Some sections are patchy, but there's a lot of stuff still.

My bank balance won't thank you but i will. Picked up some good Taschen stuff and will probably be back over the weekend.

Def try to go there this weekend.

Where are they relocating to?

I might try to get in between work and a train out of town tonight. I want a slightly calmer look at the Routledges and classics.

They're moving to Holborn, nearish Chancery Lane, but it isn't quite a done thing yet – maybe August, they told me.

Ended up buying as much as I could physically carry and feeling thoroughly ashamed of my profligacy. Will probably go back tomorrow.

might still go along this afternoon and pick up the remaining book you lot have left over.

Black Gull books in East Finchley is an awesome 2nd hand shop (and to fans of Japanese literature there are quite a few Tuttle editions in there rn)

Black Gull's very good (their little annexe in Camden Market is very judiciously stocked also, don't go to Camden Market ever if you don't have to obv).

When this thread was started the bookartbookshop on Pitfield St near Old Street had just started and was the sort of shop you'd find in that Shoreditchy-Hoxtony kind of area. In 2022 it's still going and is an absolute treasure, and it's the kind of shop you no longer find in the Shoreditchy-Hoxton kind of area.

If you're visiting Camden, then I would also recommend the nearby Walden Books, who have a good general secondhand selection - they're only open Thursdays to Sundays tho

https://www.waldenbooks.co.uk

The last time I was in London I had some happy hunting in Halcyon Books near Lewisham. Very cheap prices on everything I picked up - excellent art books in particular - although they don't cover everything - no science fiction!

https://www.halcyonbooks.co.uk

What a coincidence. I go to that bookshop every week.

Also: BOOKS in Peckham is cool (this seems the most relevant adjective) - poster Tim probably knows it:

https://books-peckham.com/

Housmans on the Caledonian Road (Kings Cross), the LRB bookshop (near the British Museum).

I recently visited the ICA 'bookshop': beware - it's a shadow of its former self. The South London Gallery (Peckham Road) is quite interesting but probably not worth a specific visit unless you're already visiting to see some art there.

I also like Daunt books opposite Hampstead Heath. Nothing particularly special in the selection - but it's a really pleasant shop and location. I was once there on a crowded Sunday afternoon when a young female assistant gave a very posh and anguished 'oooh!' and crashed from her stepladder into the front window display. She was unhurt but it was one of those rare moments of feeling intense embarrassment of someone else's behalf that I think about whoever I pass the shop.

The Daunts in Holland Park and in Marylebone are also very pleasant spaces- with a curious system of sorting books by geography.

*whenever

The Daunts in Holland Park and in Marylebone are also very pleasant spaces- with a curious system of sorting books by geography.

I believe that is the idea of it, yes.

I recently realised or was reminded that there is a Daunt in Cheapside also.

Last year a friend was telling me that Cecil Ct has had a resurgence over the last few years, among the usual rare/antique books there's been a film/music/pop-cultural bookseller and a really good children's bookshop.

I think the film/music/pop-cultural bookseller has already gone, unfortunately. They did have some amazing stuff, but boy did you have to pay for it. Most of the Cecil Court mainstays are still there tho (or were in December when I was last in Central London) - the esoteric bookshop, first edition specialists, coin and card sellers etc.

Anyone catch that odd charing cross road shop (coming north, close to cambridge circus) that popped up maybe late last summer? Very temporary vibe. Something like 3 for £5 and completely crammed with junk (not junk) stock - all kinds of paperbacks, weird academic and geographical series, trash century-old hardbacks. Had somewhere to be & paralysed by choice - I think I just picked up Nigel Smith's ed of Fox's journal - but I meant to revisit or figure out what it was, then did not.

XP - Ah what a shame, I'm no longer a local and was going to visit next week.

Yes - the film/music/pop cultural shop has departed from Cecil Ct. Some impressive material on display but too expensive.

Some year ago there was a similar shop on the other side Cecil Ct. where the poet Jeremy Reed was working as an assistant on the occasion I stopped by! I think it may have been connected with beatbooks.com.

Is that crazy Manga store on Brewer St that used to be a laundrette and has karaoke rooms in the back still going?

x-post

(It was Red Snapper.

"In addition to first editions & small press offerings of counter-culture titans such as Kerouac, Brautigan & Bukowski, our inventory provides an intriguing spectrum of modern fiction, poetry & photography. Limited first edition prints by artists such as Ralph Steadman are also available in addition to a number of unique pieces of rock & roll memorabilia." )

rip

I associate Cambridge Circus with Lovejoys - good remainder bookshop up top, porn in the basement. There were a few such establishments in Central London at one point, all long gone now.

https://goodbyelondontown.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/lovejoys.jpg

Good for cheaper, music-related coffee table books iirc

Yes, there was a similar one that specialised in Art books on the top floor which was located on the corner of Walkers Ct. Soho (at that time famous for the Raymond Revue Bar).

I used to work just off Floral St in the 90s and my path home was one long chain of music and books shops, totally deadly, I still miss Steve's Sounds.

The UK govt should bring that porn economic model back with licensed marijuana shops. Licensed selling of exotic herbal products to discerning over 18s in the basement, subsidising a well-curated esoteric selection of books on the top floor.

I thing the manga store on Brewer St went,sadly.

Last time I went to Walden books it seemed to be getting a bit sparse, stock-wise. Maybe it was a bad day / week.

Although I don’t live far from Halcyon books, they don’t open at weekends so I have t been able to get there since they re-opened.

And PF I do know that odd little shop in Peckham, I noticed them tweeting about wanting to move to a new place recently.

god the remainder/adult shops. Was once walking home the same way as a colleague, said 'just popping in here - see you tomorrow' & split off into one. People in the office quite strange with me after that.

Short contract thank god & a good selection of Harvill Press remainders so probably worth it all told.

Anyone in Bloomsbury should visit Judd Books, good for art, cinema, music and photography especially American publications which are otherwise uncommon in the UK. A few doors down there’s the institution Gay’s The Word and in Brunswick centre you have Skoob Books for secondhand.

Is Judd books the one with the big basement that is completely crammed?

yup, one of my favourites too. Those almost-recent lit crit/biography hardbacks for like £6.99 are my poison there.

Any tips for good secondhand places not in the middle of town and not otherwise mentioned upthread would be much appreciated, btw - I feel there are good places I've never been but I wouldn't know where they are.

Woof, you wouldn't happen to be the proud owner of any of these Harvills would you? (This question extends to anyone of course but since Woof mentioned them...)

Jean Strouse – Alice James

Jaan Kaplinski – Through the Forest

Women Writers at Work: The Paris Review Interviews

... or the bright yellow edition of Life A Users Manual

ah sorry Tim - no on the first three & my perec is blue, in a box and in another country :-(

Oh well, worth an ask. Pics of those three are all I need to complete this: https://300oddleopards.wordpress.com/

the quixotic quest goes on. have you still got any ones where their existence is uncertain/undetermined, Tim?

Tim - my neck of the woods has an excellent second hand bookshop, just saying if we ever want to move FAP outside London…

gyac - I think I know it and yes it's great and yes we should.

Fizzles: we don’t have titles that correspond to the following numbers:

76 (there are two 77s and one of them is listed as 76 so it may be no 76 exists)
102 (there are two 93s and one of them is listed as 102 so it may be no 102 exists)
138 (there are two 146s and one of them is listed as 138 so it may be no 138 exists)
196 Vasily Grossman – Life and Fate (this is also listed as 116 and we have pictures of this title as 116 (with two different covers!) but we have not found a copy numbered 196. It may be no 196 exists.
249 (In the list number 249 is The Rings of Saturn by W. G. Sebald but that book was not published in the Leopard format.)
284
288
289
294
298

Also these: have been listed as being in the correct edition but I don't think they exist (other format Harvills exist of some of th4em but that's nto what I'm after, I want the numbered paperbacks)

Anna Maria Ortese – The Lament of the Linnet (listed as 241)
Lidya Ginzburg – A Woman at her Desk (listed as 248)
W. G. Sebald – The Rings of Saturn (listed as 249)
Yashar Kemal – The Foundling (listed as 250)
Mayra Montero – You, Darkness (listed as 251)
Jean Giono – Second Harvest (listed as 263 and 264)

(The lists I refer to are the lists in the back of some of the books; the lists are slippery and unreliable)

(127 has the front and back reversed)

Thanks Koogs - will fix.

Yes to Judd Books, which I would say is the best returns/remainderbookshop in London.

No to Skoobs tho - ludicrously expensive and they pay next to nothing for books.

Huh - it’s not my perception that Skoob is more expensive than Judd for s/h fiction, which would be the bit I mostly look at.

Hmmm I don't normally look at the S/H pbks in Judd. I do in Skoob - and would peg their prices higher than any other secondhand bookseller in London. They are also shockingly pricey on academic books (that's based on my browsing of the film section).

Perhaps a better way of putting it is I've never ever found a bargain in Skoob.

Similar to yr Harvill quest, Tim, the writer Nicholas Royle has written a book about his collection of Picador paperbacks:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EuhCzFbXEAozwVh?format=jpg&name=large

Wowser! I bet there’s some right old toot in there mind.

Remarkable consistency in the design and colour of those spines, mind.

Quite so.

Strongly agree with poster Ward Fowler about Judd vs Skoob.

Judd tremendous for what it is - in a way as good as any shop in the city. Marvellous for US literary remainders.

Skoob has some interesting stock but always feels way overpriced.

I haven't been to Skoob since pre-pandemic, but I remember the staff being notably unfriendly, and the repeated disappointment at finding a book I wanted, opening the cover and thinking "why is it NINE POUNDS???".

Conversely the staff at Gay's The Word down from Judd Books are always super friendly and there's always something surprising to find.

I like the Oxfam in Muswell Hill; felt very smug to find a 1970s mass market paperback of Left Hand of Darkness there, a few weeks ago.

My favourite toff shop is/was Sandoe is Sloane Square - I remember a good secondhand place in Gloucester Road, too, now shutdown - can't think of the name.

Ha, I suppose I must’ve got lucky at skoob! Either that or my interests run to things that they think are valueless shit. They wouldn’t be alone in this assessment.

Sandoe still has a Harvill branded “spinner”!

Coincidentally I was good friends the owner of John Sandoe books, who then relocated to Ireland and started another bookshop (and is sadly no longer alive).