In my 2013 snapshot I mentioned that I regularly visited 19 bookshops. After that post, I received a small number of emails whose authors commented on these 19 bookshops. A couple of people said that they don't even have 19 bookshops within 19 miles from home. Someone else said that it must be amazing to live somewhere with so many bookshops and would I care to say a little bit more about these places?
It really got me thinking. When I was in Cheshire I was painfully aware of the problem of bookshops as a dying breed on the high street. Now I think about it, there were only four Waterstone's I could visit (in Knutsford, Wilmslow, two in Manchester) and one Oxfam (in Alderley Edge which, I've heard, has now been converted into a regular Oxfam unfortunately). The only supremely notable exception to this vast pool of sameness (I am referring to Waterstone's) was (is) Simply Books in Bramhall.
Simply Books in Bramhall, Cheshire
I have extremely fond memories of buying from Simply especially at the end of 2012, when I was retreating in my grief and I would drag myself out of the house 'for a look at the bookshop', as I used to tell myself, and would always come home with two, three books. I bought a lot of picture books from Simply, and books about food and books about grief.
It is quite possibly one of the smallest bookshops I've ever visited; a small room on ground floor (pic above) with a tiny cafe at the back and two tables or so, and an even smaller room upstairs but with a big table and chairs, so that you could take your coffee upstairs and browse the books there too. The thing with Simply had nothing to do with that classic cliché small is beautiful (although it does apply). Oh no, what was special about Simply is that every time I was browsing I would always find two, three, ten books I had to have. It was like its shelves had been filled by a twin Steph. Simply epitomised my perfect bookshop because it invariably awakened a burning lust for books I never knew I needed.
But once I moved to London, that was that. Since I started working here in 2001, my favourite bookshop has always been Hatchard's due to a combination of good looks and good location. I was first attracted into it by its grand claim ('London's oldest bookshop' and it's true), but as time passed it became quite evident that its shocking proximity to Fortnum's, where I tend to swing by every Monday evening for a fistful of dark chocolate orange peels, facilitated my creating an unbreakable bond. I am not overstating when I tell you that I feel at my happiest when I am walking home from Hatch's with a book under my arm and a couple of orange peels in my mouth.
Living in London permanently has also opened the door to many more wonderful places and to the wonderful realisation that, while bookshops struggle up and down the country (this is bad), in London they thrive (this is great). Over the next few weeks or so, I'll tell you a bit more about these 19 I normally go to but for now, here's what you have to look forward to:
Hatchard's
Daunt Books Chelsea
Daunt Books Holland Park
Daunt Books Hampstead
Daunt Books Belsize Park
Daunt Books Marylebone
Foyles Charing Cross
Foyles Southbank
Blackwell's
Waterstone's Piccadilly
Waterstone's Hampstead
Oxfam Hampstead
Oxfam Marylebone
Slightly Foxed
Bookends
Sandoe
London Review Bookshop
Belgravia Books
Harrods
