A long-awaited dream of mine came true when my husband and I took a great – and exhausting – bookstore tour in London. I’m sure I’m not alone in my love of bookstores and books. I also prepared for this trip using a book written specifically for bookworms and listing all the bookstores in London. Since we had limited time, we focused on central London: Bloomsbury, Soho, Charing Cross and Piccadilly Circus.
Among other places, we visited the London Review Bookshop, which was opened in 2003 by the famous publisher under the same name. In addition to the conscientiously selected collection, the bookstore also hosts various bookish events, readings and signings. Gay’s the Word was founded in 1979 and was the first LGBTQ bookstore in Britain. In addition to gay, lesbian and trans novels, magazines and non-fiction books, it plays an important role in the life of the LGBTQ community. Guanghwa bookshop is located in Chinatown and sells Chinese literature, Chinese translations of contemporary novels, dictionaries and language learning books for adults and children. Foyles bookstore has been located on Charing Cross Road since 1906. The flagship store of the chain has been located in its current location since 2014, where we can choose from 200,000 books on 5 floors, from a total of more than 6 km of shelves. The bookstore also has a café, where we tasted scone which is a part of the traditional English tea. MinaLima studio – responsible for the design of the Harry Potter universe – has a gallery and showroom called House of MinaLima in the Soho which has a truly magical atmosphere, as if you were stepping into one of the Harry Potter movies. Waterstones, the number one bookstore chain in the UK, has its flagship store on Piccadilly, offering books on every imaginable subject through 6 floors, with comfortable seating for reading. Cecil Court is a Victorian alley near Trafalgar Square, full of bookshops and galleries. We had to hurry up in the end of the day because the shops closed at 6pm, but we still managed to get to The Moomin Shop in Covent Garden, because Tove Jansson’s cute little creatures have always been my favorites.
I hope I can do more trips like this, because I think the bookshops tell you a lot about a city. And bookshops always offer an experience that you can’t get when shopping online.
