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From Chaucer, Shakespeare and Dickens to Zadie Smith, Kazuo Ishiguro and Bernardine Evaristo, London has long been home to some of the greatest writers on the planet. Often considered one of the literary capitals of the world, it’s no surprise that the city’s bookworms are brilliantly served by its excellent variety of bookshops.
Whether you’re after novels, comics, magazines, chic coffee table books or antiquarian tomes, you’ll find them in one of the city’s many brilliant shops dedicated to the printed word. We’ve collated 45 favourites in our newly updated list of London’s best bookshops.
And the number one pick probably won’t come as a huge surprise to the city’s bookworms. Said to be the first custom-built bookshop in the world, the original branch of Daunt Books in Marylebone is known for its hugely Instagrammable Edwardian interiors, featuring oak balconies, conservatory ceilings, viridian-green walls and stained-glass windows.
But it also stocks a great collection of books, too. The shop’s specialism is travel writing, so you’ll find a brilliant curation of guidebooks, maps, language references, history books, travelogues and related fiction, handily arranged by country. Travel aside, Daunt is also a first-rate stop for literary fiction, biography and gardening.
In second place is Bookmongers on Brixton’s Coldharbour Lane – where visitors can browse an overflowing collection of second-hand titles under the watchful eye of resident cat Popeye – with Foyles’s mammoth flagship store on Charing Cross Road taking the third spot.
Check out the full list of Time Out’s best London bookshops here.
From chic little book-tiques to the largest bookshop in Europe, great second-hand shops to specialist stores, Time Out’s London bookshops guides have something for every type of bookworm. Happy reading!
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