London bookshops to wile away an afternoon
Maison Assouline
PLACES FOR REST, FOR WANDER
Words by Hikarui’s editor, Jess Ione Henshall / images by Chikae
Days we are together in the city often lead to a visit to a bookshop. We enter together then split, Chikae usually drawn to the art section as I make my way to the fiction shelves, and we meet again at the counter with our findings. Time changes in the space inside a bookshop; hours pass like minutes, or are suspended all together.
I only buy books when I am visiting somewhere now — they are a keepsake, a souvenir. On my shelves at home, I can point to all the books bought on several trips to the city this year, each carefully packed in my suitcase and later unwrapped at home. I palm each of them, remembering where I bought them, feeling what I was first drawn to in each.
I walk into a bookshop with a loose list of titles, and usually leave with books in hand but not always with ones from the list. The display tables, the outward facing titles between spines, the little notes placed with handwritten recommendations — they call out to me. Books are keepers of worlds, but also of experiences. When I first met Chikae in-person, I gifted her a copy of one of my favourite books, having seen something in it that I thought might speak to her too. Each book on my shelf holds reminders of when and where it was found (sometimes, of who I was with when I found it) then later, when and where it was read. I cannot separate these experiences from the book itself, nor would I want to.
In the colder months, in the midst of busy city streets, bookshops offer a sanctuary, a place to slow and explore all the worlds held in that space. Though many are similar, no two bookshops are the same; one can lead you to books another would not. London is a new city to me, with only a small pool of its bookshops visited in the few trips I have made. This is a small list of those visited, found favourites for a sense of home in an unfamiliar place.
DAUNT BOOKS
With several shops in London, the Daunt Books Marylebone store is housed in a beautiful Edwardian building, with long oak galleries and skylights that invite reading. Their shelves are organised by country, with whole sections of the shop divided into continents — it makes for a particularly special browsing experience. They say the older part of the building was the first custom-built bookshop in the world, opened in 1910.
Daunt Books is also one of my favourite publishers, making paperback with French folded covers that beg to be held. I have bought copies of their books from their Marylebone shop without realising the connection between the two — a sign, perhaps, that they have mastered the synergy between the two that a visit to their shop can create a gravitation towards their beautiful published books amongst all the others they house.
Visit Daunt Books in Marylebone
HATCHARDS
The first bookshop I visited in London, Hatchards remains a steady favourite. On the first visit, I was exhausted from walking around Soho, and unable to make decisions amongst the many book offerings — I was an overwhelmed child in the best of sweet shops. The oldest bookshop in London (opened in 1797), it emanates a sense of old luxury with gilded details and sprawling rooms filled with shelves upon shelves of books. The upper floors are the quietest — it’s easy to forget you are in Central London when you are here.
JOHN SANDOE
When I am in need of inner quiet, I imagine myself here. A smaller shop than most others on this list, John Sandoe is floor-to-ceiling full of books, with stacks and tables and moving shelves that slide to reveal more books behind. Pick up a book and you’ll find a different one behind it. Tucked just off King’s Road, this shop calls back to Chelsea’s history as the bohemian quarter, with a small rota of staff that quickly become familiar, offering recommendations and help in finding books amongst the masses they house. When I am in London, this is an always visit, a home away from home.
Maison Assouline
When I say bookshops hold worlds inside them, none are quite so immediately felt as they are in Maison Assouline. ‘A concept store for culture’, this all in one bookshop-cocktail-lounge is an experience for the senses. The luxury bricks and mortar home of Assouline, their store is an exhibit of their designer coffee table books spanning all manner of curiosities from fashion and travel, to classics and contemporaries. With bar floors lined with typography carpets, corners decorated with rich interior furnishings, and glass cabinets filled with beautiful print objects, this bookshop feels akin to a museum; wearing white gloves to flick through tomes would be welcome here. I would like to spend a long afternoon in this space, cocktail in hand, surrounded by a room of books whose covers and production are an artwork in themselves.
Visit Maison Assouline in Piccadilly
MONOCLE SHOP
Though not strictly a bookshop, Monocle shop is the London home of Monocle magazine and publisher, selling their latest publications including newspapers, coffee table books, city guides and more alongside their curated collaborations with likeminded brands and international craft-makers. Though small in size, their shop calls for return each visit I make to the city. Just a few doors up the road is their cafe, a place to rest and read; on a hot day, order their house yuzu lemonade — I crave it weekly.
BATTERSEA BOOKSHOP
An accidental find on one of those airlessly-hot days at the end of August. Housed on the ground floor of Battersea Power Station, Battersea Bookshop is more spacious than most — the opposite, perhaps, to John Sandoe. In the busyness of a shopping centre, this is a welcome relief. There is a larger-than-most dedication to personal recommendations here, with multiple shelves stocked with staff-favourite titles to browse. This is a reader’s dream. I picked up a book on London bookshops here (a little meta, a little risky for the amount of books I was already cramming into my suitcase home) which I am sure will prompt this list to lengthen as more visits to the city and its many bookshops unfold over the months to come.