5 independent bookshops in London you need to visit
Creaky floors, handwritten recommendations and the kind of browsing no algorithm can match. Our favourite places to lose an afternoon.
London is full of bookshops, but the independents are where the city keeps its personality. Each of these has a voice of its own, and staff who will happily talk you out of the book you came in for.
Our shortlist
- A travel specialist where the maps are as tempting as the novels.
- A tiny shop on a Marylebone side street, stacked floor to ceiling.
- A riverside barge with a reading corner and a resident cat.
- A Bloomsbury institution for poetry and small presses.
- A neighbourhood shop in the east that hosts the best readings in town.
Bring a journal and note down what catches your eye. A list of books you meant to read is one of the nicest things to find in an old notebook.
A good bookshop is just a genteel black hole that knows how to read.
And do buy something. The best way to keep a place like this open is to leave with a paper bag under your arm.