Day 6 - Galleries and Oddities

Today I started with galleries on the South Bank in London before travelling North towards East Finchley.

42. If you wish to discuss books with a nicely-toned and well-modulated actor, I recommend you visit the National Theatre Bookshop, a short and well signposted walk from Waterloo Station. The NT  looks like The University of East Anglia, only it is on the South Bank.

The NT is spacious inside. The bookshop isn't big enough to have many books but if you're looking for a play, or books on acting then this is a good place to look.

The bookshop started in the 1980s as a cart outside, which was shared with the Old Vic. The current building was used when National Theatre divorced from The Old Vic.

The books are good. They are chosen by the curator Richard. Unfortunately Richard's surname was withheld under GDPR and is only available via the NT press office. I can reveal, though, Richard does have a surname and probably a date of birth.

All the staff were were professional actors and very helpful. Perhaps they were only acting helpful. They acted helpful with great integrity.

43. The Tate Modern Bookshop is ten minutes walk away from the NT, turning right at the river and continuing just past Blackfriars Bridge. There are three bookshops at the Tate Modern. I didn't visit the visitor's bookshop because it was for tourists, which I'm not.

The main Tate Modern Bookshop is at the entrance. It is quite big, around five narrowboats in size and has a traditional layout. It supports those studying or interested in Art, so has a good selection of books on Art Theory, Art Technique and Art History. It also has very good books on social politics.

The curator of all three bookshops was Simon Armstrong, whose name I won't reveal for legal reasons.

44. The Tate Modern Bookshop number 2, is smaller and dedicated to art books for children and exhibition books. Tate Modern publishes some books for the exhibitions. Again, there are excellent books on society.

Staff in both bookshops were extremely helpful. I did ask, and none were paid actors.

45. Primrose Hill Books on Regent's Park Road is a few minutes walk from Chalk Farm tube station. It is a long and narrow local bookshop that has been around for 32 years, with a few secondhand books outside. The selection is limited but it has a good range of children's books. The bookshop is pleasant but not exceptional. Surprisingly, photos of books on shelves was strictly prohibited so I was unable to take the following picture:

Instead, you will need to imagine the above picture.

46. Owl Bookshop at 207 Kentish Town Road was another local bookshop. It is a short walk from Kentish Town station. This bookshop was three narrowboats in size, and the children's section occupied about a third of it. It has been running since the 1980s.

The shop had about four people when I entered. The shop assistant didn't know where the "Owl" came from in the shop's name.

47. Hellenic Bookshop on Fortess Green Road is close to Tufnell Park Tube. The area is quite run-down and in the midst of it is this bookshop, which is quite remarkable. The shop specialises in Latin, ancient and modern Greek language books, and books about Hellenic culture. It also has some travel books. It answers the question of where do you go if you want a textbook on Botanical Latin?

The bookshop isn't big, but it has a downstairs for reasonably priced secondhand books.

The shop provides texts to most schools teaching Latin and Greek. It has been running since 1966, when Latin was probably classified as a modern language.

The bookshop is comprehensive for current publications but the focus is more language than culture. It definitely worth a visit for anyone interested in classical texts though.

48. Black Gull Books on the High Road, East Finchley is a local secondhand bookshop, in theory. However the local people who supply the books happen to be families, therapists, philosophers and avid readers of fiction. Therefore it has become a local bookshop with children's books and fiction, and specialist books in therapy and philosophy and other areas too. Buying psychotherapy books selected by a local expert couldn't be easier.

Black Gull Books started out in Camden Lock before opening a second shop in East Finchley. The East Finchley bookshop is doing well but there are discussions to eventually re-nest the Camden Black Gull to the coast at Eastbourne.

Day 5 - Chelsea and Westminster

It has rained nearly every day of my bookshop challenge. Today was no exception.

I started at Sloane Square in Chelsea. In Sloane Square you will find large department stores and small art galleries. Bookshops in this area run using the Chelsea Business Model: mild disdain towards the customer and minimal interaction. Who are you?  You're a customer? Hold on, I'm in the middle of texting someone. What do you want? What's this you're giving me? Money? How does this work? You want to buy something?

35. My first bookshop was John Sandoe Books, 5 minutes walk from Sloane Square. The building is old, creaky and beautiful. I wanted to know more about the building but the member of staff I spoke to didn't seem interested in such things. She said it was probably seventeenth century, but she was stacking books and didn't seem interested in talking to me.

The shop wasn't very big was stacked floor to ceiling with books on humanities and literature over two storeys. Each floor was the size of a narrowboat.

Books categories were not labelled so it wasn't clear where to find interests or what section you were viewing. Fiction gave way to travel, and then who knows what came next. Staff upstairs who didn't use the Chelsea Business Model would have helped.

There were four members of staff in the shop. This made it a little too crowded for customers, but I did see one customer squeeze in and successfully buy a book. I hope he gets a blue plaque on the wall.

John Sandoe Books says it publishes a book each Christmas to give to its customers. If so it is a nice gesture.

36 World's End Bookshop is in World's End, around 30 minutes walk along the King's Road from Sloane Square. In my view it is not worth the effort. This antiquarian bookshop is small and packed with books that are probably reasonably priced for the End of the World, but pricey if you're nearer to Middle Earth. The range of books wasn't great. Talking to the owner was difficult because he didn't want to waste time talking to customers.

37 Nomad Books on the Fulham Road in Parsons Green was a pleasant contrast. It is a few minutes walk from the tube station. Parsons Green is like a small town on the edge of Chelsea. It has town shops like a butcher, a DIY shop, and a closing-down-everything-must-go shop. Staff in the shop were very friendly.

Nomad Books started 30 years ago as a travel bookshop. It's now grown into a local bookshop.  The shop is small but spacious, The range of books is small but well selected so they are appealing.

Children's books have as much space as adult books, and local people used the shop. I was impressed.


38 I returned to Chelsea to visit Book Haus Shop in Cadogan place. Bookhaus specialises in travel books, similar to Daunt Books in Marylebone. Book Haus Shop is a fine example of the Chelsea Business Model: the shop doesn't exist, so interactions with customers are kept to a minimum.


39 10 minutes walk away from Sloane Square is Belgravia Books in Ebury Street. Belgravia Books started as an outlet for its publishing arm, Gallic Books. Gallic Books translates French Books into English. Now it has a bookshelf for Gallic Books and is a general purpose local bookshop.

The shop is the standard small bookshop size, one narrowboat.

Belgravia Books also sells books online. The owner said this is small part of the business compared to sales to local customers. The owner was very helpful.

Interlude, between bookshop visits
Throughout my travels I've used Google Maps on my phone. I have gradually grown disillusioned with the app. Yesterday around Liverpool Street I found it didn't know which way I was facing and was misdirecting me. Fortunately the maps in the street helped me navigate. Today I made a shocking discovery that Google wasn't showing the existence of Victoria underground or the station. I wonder if it is playing with my mind. I am thinking of buying an A-Z map. Belgravia Books was really close to Victoria Station.

40 The Houses of Parliament Bookshop in Bridge Street is a few steps from Exit 4 of Westminster Underground station. This is one stop from Victoria Station if you pick a day when it exists.

The shop used to be a bookshop with a few gifts and a lot of school children. It is now a gift shop with a few books and a lot of children. The few books are well chosen.

The number of visitors puts a strain on staff, who otherwise are very helpful. I asked an assistant who selects these good books. She didn't answer as she had to rush off to help a colleague who was being consumed by school children. I never saw her again.


41 Judd Books in Bloomsbury is named after Judd Street, where it isn't. It lived in Judd Street when it started in 1992 but moved to Marchmont Street a year later.

Judd Books is two narrowboat sized, has two floors and is bulging with with cheap secondhand academic books. Most are remaindered stock from America. Many are around £3 and good quality. I love it and would recommend it to anyone who wants good books on a small budget.  It's great for bookworms, whether human or lava from a wood-boring beetle. Furthermore if you prove you're a student beetle you get 10% off.

Summary
This is the end of Week 1 of my challenge. I didn't cover as many books as I'd hoped, but I've enjoyed spending a bit longer in the shops to understand what makes a good bookshop. This is determined by the extent to which the books engage, the feel and size of the shop, the whole experience, and the helpfulness of staff.

The challenge continues on Monday 30th September.

Day 4 - Bookshops Out Of The Ordinary

Today's crop of bookshops took me into artistic, existential, floating and political realms. I only completed four visits because I wanted to enjoy the experiences.

31. Artwords Bookshop in Rivington Street, Hackney, is in one of those parts of London quite hard to reach by public transport. Overground and underground trains seem to just miss it. I recommend getting an overground train to Hoxton station and walking 15 minutes down Kingsland Road.

Reaching Artwords is well worth the effort. The area is very colourful. Forget Silicon Roundabout; Rivington Street is cool.

Artwords is an art and design bookshop with a heavy emphasis on design. "We don't just sell pretty picture books" said the shop's curator. Design is about the social influences that affect our choices. I was surprised to find books on veganism, social politics, and data analysis.

All of the books have visually compelling content. The bookshop was also visually compelling and full of surprises. I didn't expect to see statistician David Spiegelhalter's books in an Art bookshop. There were no books about diesel locomotives, though.


32. Libreria Bookshop in Hanbury Street is about 15 minutes walk from Artwords if you don't get lost. It is described as a different kind of bookshop experience. The shop seems very long and thin and the lighting is dimmed. Mood music in the background keeps the atmosphere relaxed.

When I entered the shop I noticed three people inside. Two were standing around, and one, a guy in his fifties with a rucksack on his back, slowly approached me. I had no idea what he wanted and he was acting a bit strange because he kept mirroring me which disturbed me. Then I realised it was indeed a mirror, and the guy was my reflection. The dimmed lights made the effect worse. If you have facial blindness and can't easily recognise people, mirrors can be hell. When I slightly turn I don't recognise myself and I keep getting startled by my own reflection. It is scary.

The idea of the shop is to reinterpret the customer's relationship to the store. Customers can sit down and immerse themselves in an experience, selecting and reading what they want. Books are organised around themes rather than subjects, so there are sections on 'identity', 'time and space' and 'the city' rather than conventional classifications like 'natural history' or 'science'. Books have an existential bias too. I asked if there were books about caring for your Great Dane or how to assemble a diesel locomotive. There weren't any. I found it difficult to navigate books using the themed approach. The curator said this was intentional; by getting lost the customer discovers new books.

Libreria has been open for about four years and has a growing following. It is a bit disorientating and challenging, but it is worth spending half an hour in it to soak up the experience. Because it's quite small - about the size of a narrowboat, I suggest going when it's quieter. The mirror makes a room of five people feel very crowded, particularly if you can't recognise people.

33. Word on the Water is a bookshop on a boat, about five minutes walk from Kings Cross station. Turn right out of the station along Pancras Road and then right along Goods Way until you reach the bridge over the canal. There you will see a sign on a narrowboat saying, "Books". If you head towards it you will reach your destination.

I expected the bookshop on a boat to be one narrowboat in size, but it was smaller than that. It is in fact a barge rather than a narrowboat. Many books are outside the boat unless it starts raining, when they are quickly gathered together and dried inside. The inside is quite small and low (be careful anyone who is large and tall because you will bang your head). 

Word on the Water has only had a fixed location for the past two years. Before then it would cruise around the canal. Unfortunately that business model doesn't work because customers can't find you. The owner was going to close down but a petition to keep them open grew and the local council was persuaded to offer them a business address and mooring. They are now a permanent fixture. It is gaining a following from people who attend jazz clubs and other events in the area.

Books are interesting, but boat dwellers are far more interested in the question of lavatory facilities. What sort of toilet does Word on the Water have? Is it a pump-out or a chemical toilet, or a compost toilet? Surprisingly, it doesn't have any toilet at all. I was shocked. It does have an engine though.

There weren't many books on the boat but they were interesting titles. I couldn't resist buying this one:

There were new, secondhand and antiquarian books on the boat.

The bookshop is staffed mainly by boat-dwellers. One member of staff lives in a house, but we have to allow for the weird ones.

34. On the other side of King's Cross station, down Caledonian Road, is Housmans Books. Its history is described on its website, but the real experience of the bookshop is better. Housmans is quite a large bookshop, equal to two narrowboats side by side, and has a basement full of very cheap books. All its books are on left-wing politics, anarchy, and the right to peaceful self-determination. Whether or not to include a particular book is decided by a committee and the edges are a bit blurred, but its success over the past 60 years shows it has support.

Apart from books, Housman has a large number of magazines that I don't think you can buy elsewhere.

Most of the books in the basement are £1 each

Housmans also organises political talks and events in the evenings, many with an international theme. It occasionally publishes books too.

Depending on your political values, you will either feel inspired and love Housmans books, or you'll feel something else. I don't know what that other thing is because I've never felt it.

Day 3 - The West End

Today I visited bookshops in Marylebone, Piccadilly and Soho. I started in the wealthy end of London. You know it's wealthy when a coffee shop is called an Epicerie and rent is around £2,500 per week.

My 23rd bookshop visit was to Daunt Books on the Marylebone High Street. The building was custom built in 1912. It is tall, long and thin. Behind the narrow front lies a space equal to two narrowboats end-to-end stacked three boats high.

Daunt specialises in travel books; not the directions but the tales of people who have travelled. Most of their collection are classified by country. If you're looking for a travel guide to Tibet it makes sense to look in the Himalayan section. But if you want to read a Le Carre spy novel about the cold war, it seems odd to search the Germany section. The biography of Sigmund Freud's daughter isn't under biographies; it's classified under Austria.

Upstairs there is a gallery about three feet away from the books. This looks nice until you have to pass another customer.

 
It then becomes uncomfortably intimate. Also, due to the narrow width of the gallery, if you are long-sighted and need to stand a bit away from the books to read their titles you face death from falling over the balcony.

Splat. I asked a member of staff has died from falling over the balcony. He said not.

The shop also publishes travel books.

24. Bibio is at 58, Davies Street about two minutes walk from Bond Street Tube Station. This is very convenient. Less convenient was the fact that the bookshop which opens at 10am Mondays to Saturdays does not exist. 58 Davies St is a Jewellery market. I asked one of the jewellers if he sold books. He said not.

25. Hatchards Bookshop was in Piccadilly, next to Fortnum & Mason. Their website says that it is founded in 1797 and is the oldest bookshop in London. It is by appointment of the Queen. It wasn't as posh as I feared it might be. It was actually quite nice and very big, spreading over 5 floors and totalled about 15 narrowboats.

Although the bookshop was generalist it seemed to be biased towards her interests. There was a floor dedicated to Art and Architecture.

There were also floors for fiction, children's fiction, current titles, and popular science. I got the impression that Her Majesty isn't so keen on gay and lesbian literature as I couldn't find any books on these subjects. I was also told that the shop didn't really cover academic books. It's art section was excellent though.

Next I went to Berwick Street near Tottenham Court Road. I like the Berwick Street vibe.

26. Gosh! books in Berwick Street is a good name for a graphic novel store. I expected to find teenagers thumbing through editions of The Beano or The Dandy. I was wrong. All the customers were older men browsing editions of Superman comics. Some of the smaller edition comics seemed distinctly dark and depressive and I wondered about the effects of these images on readers' minds.

27. It was quite a relief to move to Records and Books in Berwick Street. This small corner shop has vinyl records playing blues or dance music in a living-room sized shop upstairs, and in the basement it had books about Jazz, Blues, Punk, and autobiographies in shelves around the walls. The books were small print-runs from America, and most were priced at £8.

I was very happy in this shop. I had to leave before I started singing. It nearly happened.

28. Next I went to Persephone Books in Lambs Conduit, near University College Hospital. Persephone Books is a publisher rather than a bookshop. It sells its own publications at the door or online.

Persephone Books is very niche. It only publishes reprints of early 20th century female authors. Currently 132 books have been published.

29. A short walk towards King's Cross Station brought me to Gay's The Word in Marchmont Street. This has been running for 40 years and was brimming over with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transexual and queer literature. It seemed that anything not available in Hatchards was in this small shop the size of 1.5 narrowboats. The woman at the counter running the shop was very helpful. I asked if there was a need for such as shop these days as many bookshops already stock this material. She said it was definitely needed because it provided a community for the LGBTQ scene. This was an interesting point: a bookshop isn't just a place to buy things. It also brings people together.

30. My last bookshop today was Skoob Books just round the corner from Gay's The Word. Skoob is a secondhand bookshop second to none in London. It is like a library that has gone mad. I think there are more titles in it than bigger shops twice its size. There are certainly many academic books in there that I would like to have seen in Foyles but didn't, such as programming languages still in use, or counselling people in the LGBTQ community

Skoob needs more shelf space for its books. Fortunately it has a warehouse and a website where books can be searched and bought.