From a pharmacy-inspired shop that hands out poetry like medicine to one with a test kitchen for its cookbooks, here are five unique bookstores in London that offer fresh sights, sounds, and of course, reads.
For the avid traveler and reader, there’s nothing quite like visiting bookstores in other countries. It not only opens you up to a wider selection of books, but also fulfills your wanderlust on both a psychological and physical level. Books take you to countless worlds, while traveling to peruse them quite literally takes you to a different place. Yet some bookstores take their experiences to a whole new level, offering fresh sights, sounds, and curated collections that completely change the way you think about reading. You’ll find a lot of these unique bookstores in London—which makes sense, as the UK has long been one of the world’s publishing capitals.
So if you’re a reader planning a trip to The Big Smoke sometime soon, and are looking for a fresh perspective on all things books, here are five must-visit bookstores to add to your itinerary.
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The Poetry Pharmacy
The Poetry Pharmacy can heal and enrich you—but it doesn’t sell medicine, at least not the conventional types. Though it has a branch in High Street Bishop’s Castle, Shropshire, the bookstore’s newest branch in Oxford Street, London has been gaining plenty of traction online. Situated above Lush’s Oxford Street Spa, the unique store is built like a pharmacy, selling books and snippets of poems as “prescriptions” for different emotions or circumstances a person is going through.
Their books are arranged in categorized shelves covering different needs like “Comfort,” “Words of Love,” and “Calm.” It also has a lineup of charming “medicine bottles” filled with capsules containing bits of poetry related to a particular theme, such as “S.A.D. Pills,” “Chill Pills,” “Joy,” and even “Social Media Detox.”
Visitors can receive poetry pill “prescriptions” based on how they’re feeling, which staff will pack into cute paper bags when they purchase them. Should visitors need a bite or warm drink, The Poetry Pharmacy also delivers with its in-house coffee shop selling beverages and cakes. Every detail in the store is a fun and innovative reminder about the impact and even healing power of words.
Books for Cooks
Books for Cooks combines delicious food and a cozy bookstore to create a one-of-a-kind experience. Located in London’s Notting Hill, the store describes itself as a “cookbook shop,” selling a vast assortment of delicious titles on all things food. However, more than just selling books, the unique bookstore also has a test kitchen or café at the back of its shop, where customers can try the recipes inside the store’s books, made with care by its resident chefs, or even its owner Eric Treuille.
Every day, the team will choose different recipes from among the many books in the shop, cooking and serving them to a set amount of customers, and therefore letting them actually get a taste of what the titles have to offer.
Due to its experimental nature, the test kitchen’s menu changes daily, depending on what the staff wants to try out (and the seasonal ingredients they use). This encourages customers to be open with the food they try, allowing them to explore unconventional dishes or new flavors. Books for Cooks is certainly putting theory into practice, and it’s a worthy travel spot for foodies with a hunger for words, novelty, and of course, tasty treats.
Gay’s The Word
For decades, queer forms of self-expression have undergone intense censorship, prohibiting members of the community from finding safe spaces where they can discover and engage with their own stories. In fact, the decriminalization of homosexuality within the UK was an alarmingly recent occurrence that didn’t quite happen overnight (while law ended it in 1967, members of the LGBTQ+ community still lived in hostile circumstances as late as 2013).
This is why Gay’s The Word—the UK’s oldest LGBTQ+ bookstore and London’s only gay bookstore—holds particular significance. Situated at Marchmont Street in London, it began in 1979, its founders also members of the queer community who used its proceeds to continue supporting the bookstore’s survival through the years. Jim MacSweeney, the shop’s manager, has been working in the store since 1989, and is joined by other equally passionate staff to ensure that queer voices continue to be heard.
As the name suggests, the unique bookstore has become a resource for queer titles across a variety of genres, from non-fiction to poetry. Yet beyond that, it has also served as a haven for various LGBTQ+ groups to assemble, as well as an inclusive platform for emerging queer writers.
Daunt Books (Marylebone High Street)
One should consider visiting Daunt Books‘ Marylebone High Street, London branch for its beautiful interiors alone. Expansive oak shelves line the space, with elegant and vintage fixtures that evoke Edwardian sensibilities at their finest. Indeed, guests have come out of their experience stating that it’s arguably one of London’s most beautiful bookshops.
Established in the 1990s, Daunt Books is an independent franchise with multiple branches (though the Marylebone High Street one is the most famous). Yet beyond a gorgeous ambiance, the store offers a diverse selection of books that they arrange by country or region, allowing guests to actually go on a worldwide adventure. It’s a space made for the adventurous at heart, allowing readers to discover new voices and experiences from different places.
Hatchards (Piccadilly)
Hatchards is also a franchise of bookstores, and while it doesn’t look like anything out of the ordinary, its Piccadilly branch holds a very long and respected history. That’s because it’s the first Hatchards shop, and the oldest bookstore in London; so for historical value alone, it’s certainly unique and worth a look.
The Piccadilly store was founded by John Hatchard in 1797, and today, still stands as a stunning five-story bookshop next to the equally-storied Fortnum and Mason department store, and opposite the esteemed Royal Academy of the Arts. It contains most of the titles that any bookworm could possibly want, and even carries newly-signed first editions and special editions of different books.
Then of course, there’s also the fact that the bookstore proudly holds three royal warrants: essentially a seal of approval from the British royal family, making it the monarchy’s official procurer of all things literature. So visitors can rest assured that the store delivers nothing but exceptional quality through its collections.
Banner photo from The Poetry Pharmacy website
