Best bookstores in London cover far more ground than most visitors expect, running from a Piccadilly bookshop that has traded since 1797 to a converted 1920s barge moored near King’s Cross. Between those two extremes sit independents built around themes, cookbooks, comics and out-of-print finds, each one worth the Tube fare in its own right. This guide, put together by ConnollyCove’s Ireland-based travel team, groups them by character rather than squeezing them into a single ranked list, so you can choose shops that match how you actually like to browse.
We’ve also traced something most London guides leave out: the city’s long, quiet relationship with Irish writing. W.B. Yeats, Bram Stoker and Oscar Wilde all spent significant stretches of their working lives in London, and that history still surfaces on shelves across the city if you know where to look. If you’re travelling from Ireland or simply curious about that connection, we’ve flagged where it shows up.
Table of Contents
The Historic Icons: Hatchards and Foyles
Two shops anchor most bookshop visits to London, and both have earned a reputation. Hatchards, on Piccadilly, opened its doors in 1797 and is generally recognised as the oldest bookshop still trading in the UK. Its narrow Georgian frontage opens into a warren of rooms across five floors, with a dedicated travel section tucked among the fiction and history shelves. The shop has held royal warrants over the decades, though these change with the monarchy, so it’s worth checking the current status on a visit rather than relying on older write-ups.
Foyles, a short walk away on Charing Cross Road, was founded in 1903 by brothers William and Gilbert Foyle after they tried and failed to sell their old exam textbooks. It grew into one of the largest bookshops in the world by shelf length, and the current flagship at 107 to 109 Charing Cross Road spreads the collection across eight mezzanine levels around a central atrium, with a cafe and a small gallery space built in. Foyles was bought by Waterstones in 2018 but still trades under its own name and keeps its own identity, including the jazz and classical music department on the second floor that longtime visitors come back for.
Neighbourhood Independents Worth the Detour
The best independent bookshops in London tend to reward a slower pace than the big flagships. Daunt Books in Marylebone is the one most people photograph before they’ve even bought anything: the original 1910s section has a long room lined with oak galleries and a stained glass skylight, purpose-built for a bookshop and rare enough that it’s often described as one of the first buildings ever designed for the trade. True to its travel-bookshop origins, the shelves are organised by country rather than by genre, so guidebooks, fiction and history for a single destination sit side by side.
Libreria in Spitalfields takes almost the opposite approach. There’s no author or subject on the spines to search by; instead, books are shelved under themes like “Wanderlust” or “The City”, encouraging you to find something by browsing rather than searching. It’s a small space, built by the same group behind Second Home’s co-working sites, and it rewards ten unhurried minutes more than a quick scan.
For something quieter still, Lutyens & Rubinstein in Notting Hill runs on staff recommendations and conversation rather than volume. It’s a genuinely small shop, so if a title matters to your trip, ring ahead to check they have it in stock before making a special journey.
The Irish Literary Thread Running Through London’s Bookshops
London’s bookshops hold more Irish literary history than most visitors realise, because so many of Ireland’s best-known writers actually lived and worked in the city. W.B. Yeats spent much of his childhood and early adulthood in London, moving between Dublin and Bedford Park in west London before his career took him back to Ireland.
Bram Stoker managed the Lyceum Theatre in the West End for nearly three decades while writing Dracula in his spare hours, and Oscar Wilde wrote and staged several of his best-known plays in the city before his trial and exile. None of that history is fenced off in a museum; it’s part of the reason Irish fiction, poetry and drama still turn up on general shelves across London rather than being treated as a niche import.
“I always tell people to build a bit of slack into any London bookshop afternoon, because that’s usually when you spot something unexpected: a first UK edition of a Heaney collection, or a Faber poetry anthology with more Irish names in the contents page than you’d guess from the cover,” says Ciaran Connolly, Founder of ConnollyCove. “It’s one of the quieter ways London and Ireland stay connected.”
Larger general shops like Foyles tend to carry Irish fiction and poetry within their wider literature sections rather than as a separate display, so it’s worth asking staff if you don’t see it shelved on its own. Secondhand shops are often the better bet for older Irish editions, since a general fiction shelf turns over faster than a specialist collection does.
If you want to go deeper into the writers themselves before you travel, our guides to some of Ireland’s best-loved authors and to W.B. Yeats’s life and work cover the background well. Our broader roundup of famous Irish authors and their tourism connections is worth a read too, particularly if you’re planning to follow the Irish leg of this literary trail after London. For readers interested specifically in Irish women’s writing, our piece on famous Irish women is a useful starting point, and our wider look at Ireland’s literary history fills in the context.
Specialist and Secondhand Finds
Word on the Water is the shop most people ask about after they’ve heard of it rather than stumbled across it. It operates from Dianti, a Dutch canal boat built in the 1920s, permanently moored near Granary Square in King’s Cross since 2015, after several years of having to shift location every few weeks under canal mooring rules. It’s a genuine working bookshop rather than a novelty stop, stocking secondhand fiction, poetry and children’s books, and it doubles as a small venue for readings and live music.
Books for Cooks in Notting Hill is built entirely around food writing, from classic technique to regional specialities, with a small test kitchen on site where recipes from the shelves get cooked and tasted. It keeps shorter hours than most shops on this list and closes for stretches around late August and over the Christmas period, so check before making a special trip.
Hurlingham Books in Fulham has been trading since the late 1960s and is often called one of the oldest independent bookshops in south-west London. Stock spills from floor to ceiling, and a good deal more is held in a nearby warehouse that’s viewable by request, making it one of the better spots for older or harder-to-find titles.
Foster Books in Chiswick specialises in rare and antiquarian volumes inside an eighteenth-century building on the high street, while Gosh! Comics in Soho covers graphic novels and comics from mainstream to independent, with regular signings and launch events.
Where to Sit and Actually Read
Not every bookshop on this list gives you anywhere to sit, so plan around the ones that do if a slow browse matters more than a quick purchase. Foyles has a cafe built into its Charing Cross Road flagship, on the ground floor near the entrance, making it the easiest option for a proper coffee break between floors.
Word on the Water keeps a stove going through the colder months and puts chairs out along the towpath in summer, so it works either way. Most of the smaller independents, Daunt Books and Libreria included, are tight on floor space and don’t have seating of their own, so treat them as browsing stops and save the sitting-down reading for a nearby cafe instead.
If historical fiction is more your interest than browsing shelves in person, our list of Irish historical fiction novels worth reading makes a good companion for the flight over, and travellers extending their trip to Dublin often pair a London bookshop crawl with a visit to the Dublin Writers Museum to see the other side of this literary connection.
Bookshop by Bookshop: The Quick Reference Guide
| Shop | Neighbourhood | Best for | Nearest Tube |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hatchards | Piccadilly | Historic atmosphere, gifts | Piccadilly Circus |
| Foyles | Charing Cross Road | Range, browsing time | Tottenham Court Road |
| Daunt Books | Marylebone | Travel books, architecture | Baker Street |
| Libreria | Spitalfields | Themed browsing | Shoreditch High Street |
| Lutyens & Rubinstein | Notting Hill | Staff recommendations | Notting Hill Gate |
| Word on the Water | King’s Cross | Something different | King’s Cross St Pancras |
| Books for Cooks | Notting Hill | Food and cookery writing | Ladbroke Grove |
| Hurlingham Books | Fulham | Secondhand and rare finds | Parsons Green |
| Foster Books | Chiswick | Antiquarian books | Turnham Green |
| Gosh! Comics | Soho | Comics and graphic novels | Tottenham Court Road |
Two Bookshop Crawls to Try
A single afternoon rarely covers more than three or four shops properly, so pick a small area rather than trying to cross the whole city. ConnollyCove’s team has walked both of the routes below on separate trips, and neither one needs more than a day. The Marylebone to Bloomsbury route works well on foot: start at Daunt Books, walk south-east towards Charing Cross Road for Foyles and the cluster of antiquarian and secondhand shops on nearby Cecil Court, then finish near the British Museum with a coffee before the shops close.
For a slower, quirkier day, pair Notting Hill’s Books for Cooks and Lutyens & Rubinstein with a walk down towards Word on the Water at King’s Cross; it’s a longer route, so budget for the Tube between stops rather than walking the whole way. Our four-day London itinerary has a fuller day-by-day structure if you want to build a bookshop crawl into a longer trip.
Planning Your Visit: Hours, Seasons and Practical Notes
Most independents on this list keep shorter hours on Sundays, and several close entirely on Mondays, so check individual websites before travelling rather than assuming standard shop hours apply. Fewer tourists browse on weekday mornings, which makes it easier to talk with staff and get proper recommendations rather than a quick answer. Author events and festival programming tend to cluster in spring and autumn, so if a specific talk or signing matters to your trip, check a shop’s events page a few weeks ahead rather than on the day.
Winter visits reward the shops with working fireplaces or stoves, Word on the Water among them, while summer is better suited to a slower walk between several stops. For general trip planning around these visits, our London travel guide and first-time visitor tips, both from ConnollyCove’s UK travel coverage, go into more depth on transport, timing and budgeting.
FAQs About The Best Bookstores in London
Here are quick answers to the questions we hear most often about visiting London’s bookshops.
What is the oldest bookshop in London?
Hatchards on Piccadilly is generally recognised as the oldest bookshop still trading in London, having opened in 1797. It has occupied the same Piccadilly address for its entire history.
Is Daunt Books connected to Waterstones?
No, Daunt Books is independently owned by its founder, James Daunt. He separately serves as CEO of Waterstones and Barnes & Noble, which sometimes causes confusion, but the two companies are run separately.
Is there a floating bookshop in London?
Yes, Word on the Water operates from a 1920s Dutch barge permanently moored near Granary Square in King’s Cross. It stocks secondhand fiction, poetry and children’s books and hosts occasional live events.
Where can I find Irish authors in London bookshops?
Larger general shops such as Foyles typically shelve Irish fiction and poetry within their wider literature sections rather than as a separate display. It’s worth asking staff directly, since stock and layout change between visits.
Are London bookshops open on Sundays?
Most large shops like Foyles and Hatchards open on Sundays, but many independents keep shorter Sunday hours or close entirely on Mondays. Check a shop’s website before travelling to avoid a wasted trip.
How should I plan a bookshop crawl in London?
Group shops by neighbourhood rather than trying to cross the city in one day, since London’s best bookshops are spread across very different areas. Two or three shops with a proper coffee break in between usually work better than a rushed five-stop dash.
