Jarndyce

In Dickens’s Bleak House Jarndyce and Jarndyce was the law case that consumed all the money the litigants were fighting over. In contrast, the stock in this charming bookshop, which is housed in a building dating back to the 1730s and located opposite the British Museum, is most reasonably priced, with exciting finds from £10. The shop does maintain its links to the great man himself, though, with a suitably large collection of Dickens that had been freshly catalogued on our last visit. The owners believe strongly in the durability and good value of an 18th- or 19th-century hardback – the focus of this fine institution. Other specialisms here include pamphlets, street literature, women writers and chapbooks from the period. Proprietor Brian Lake is known for his publication Fish Who Answer the Telephone (co-edited with Russell Ash) and other amusingly titled publications.