The best bookstore in London. They have such a great collection - I can find books I can't find…read moreother places (and I've looked hard!!) Also great cafe, restrooms, and staff!

Best bookstore in London for language books (Celtic, German, English, Italian, Spanish, French,…read moreHebrew, Arabic, Ukrainian, Polish, Russian, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Greek, Dutch, etc.!!) and it has a cafe upstairs as well as a huge kids books area.

This quaint second hand book shop has an admirable range of books (19, 000!) from first editions,…read morerare finds to the academic sort. Conveniently located only a short walk from Soho as well as Leicester Square tube, Any Amount of Books is a safe haven to escape to from the busy streets of central London. They sell books as cheap as a pound to thousands. The choice is immense. If you go to their website you can see the books they sell and see if anything catches your fancy.

Wanted to pick up a book for my kid on my way out of London. Yelp app told me this place was close…read moreto the Leicester square underground station. The other reviews are pretty much on target. Warm, cozy shop. Staff were friendly and let me stash my bags behind the counter while I perused. I found a book for 4 GBP with MSRP 10 GBP. Didn't seem like the best deal, but it was in good shape so I paid and headed off to Heathrow. When I got home, I spot checked the price and it was actually really competitive. Also, the book was from Dec 2014 and my visit in Jan 2015. My point being you can also get really recent stuff here too, not just the antique stuff mentioned in the other reviews!

This bookstore is pretty big with four floors of books and restrooms at every level by the stairs…read more They do also have an elevator of course. You can spend hours here, but eventually they will have to ask eve time to leave when they close.

This is the second oldest bookstore in the world. Many floors including an elevator along with…read morerestaurant on the top floor. It is a lovely place. I spent several hours here. Amazing selection. Good value for what they have. Friendly service. Recommended.

Awesome store. Comics. Graphic novels. Back issues. Collectables. Friendly staff. Extensive…read morecollection.

Wow. Just, wow! I decided to check this place out (due in now small part to the label "megastore"…read morein some directories). I was not disappointed. The location has two massive stories of wall-to-wall geeky joy. Books, action figures, art, video gaming goodness; it's got it all. I appreciated how everything was very well organized (largely by pop culture features/brands). It was so well organized that I didn't need to actually ask for any directions or help finding stuff.

I am one of the few Yelpers who seems to have come here for the books, not the cakes. In fact, upon…read moreentering the shop, I was so immediately attracted to the very many excellent and intriguing books, I missed the cafe entirely. (I have no doubt the cafe is excellent, as the reviews here confirm.) The sales staff was absolutely top-notch, and while the staff person was busy identifying several of the books by John Berger that were available, he and I had a nice conversation about Berger. As it turns out, London Review was involved in the publication of one of Berger's recent books, so of course they had it in stock. A truly superb bookshop, for new books, stocked with a highly discerning eye.

Hving read Andrew M's review, I think that I can see a pattern. I too was lured here on the promise…read moreof London's best carrot cake and like him, I was to be disappointed when we arrived as they had run out of said cake. It must be good! My friend Sharon brought me here and she is an avid reader. If you love interesting books, this is a treasure trove with books covering a whole multitude of subjects. The staff are excellent at recommending and finding specific books for you There's a little cafe next door to the bookshop - reading can induce an appetitie, don't you know? We snagged one of the little tables and went for alternatives to the disappointingly absent carrot cake. We chose the intriguing courgette and lemon curd cake as well as the mixed berry cheesecake The courgette and lemon curd cake was great - a subtle hint of courgette so as not to be too vegetabley but lovely and moist with more dominant lemon flavour. The mixed berry cheesecake was nice but more conventional Sharon was intrigued enough to try and recreate the courgette cake at home, always a sign of a good dish. Perhaps one day, Andrew and I may get the chance to try teh famous carrot cake

This is by far the BEST spiritual/occult bookshop in the world…read more If you are a crazy bibliophile like moi, you owe it to yourself to get yourself to London, then get yourself to Cecil Court, an entire alley of rare booksellers and head over to Watkins Books, if you love all things spiritual, mystical and occult. It's no secret that J.K Rowling of Harry Potter fame based Diagon Alley on Cecil Court but not as well-known is that she too is a fan of Watkins Books. Yes, you'll find the usual New Age clap-trap, Law of Attraction, astrology, crystals, tarot books and paraphernalia, particularly on the ground floor. But head downstairs and that's where the real serious stuff is. When I mentioned little-known obscure mystical and spiritual writers like Martinus of Denmark, Mikhael Aivanhov on Bulgaria, Daskalos of Cyprus and Torkom Saradarian, no joke they had it all in their computer database and even a few titles on the shelves. While I took my pile of books to a table and sat myself down to look them over and decide which ones I was going to purchase, I could not help but hear the kinds of questions and queries, customers were giving to the sales associate behind the desk. People here know their stuff and it was fairly obvious that even the kinds of titles they were mentioning and the writers they were asking for showed a clientele of substantial spiritual maturity and insight. This will never happen in Quebec at least not for another 300 years. Please dear Londoners, do not ever let this shop go. A place like this needs to exist for seekers everywhere.

Really cool bookstore with a very unique selection of books everything from witchcraft and tarot to…read moreself help. I love bookstore row and this is a must see if you hit the spot!

What a fun shop! We saw the reviews on Yelp and decided to make a special trip to visit. It was…read morewell worth it. They have some cute and unusual items, gift and of course, lots of books and maps. Staff was friendly and knowledgeable. The cafe where we enjoyed a pot of green tea was very cozy. We'll go back on our next visit to London.

We love bookstores, and especially those with travelguides only. If you can't find it, it probably…read moredoesn't exists. And it will probably be wiser to look for an other destination. Besides travelguides and maps they also sell themed novels and photo books, and funny books. They have a small assortiment of travel needs like plugs. In the cellar you'll find some globes. Beautiful but expensive. The store has two floors. Don't forget the cellar which houses the travelguides and maps, in alphabetic order by continent.

Brilliant. Yes please. Can I have some more like this, I loved every little bit about it…read more Essentially Persephone Bookshop is a front, a front for a funky publishing company who are hell-bent bringing out forgotten and obscure female novelists from the inter-war period, which I find to be a very good thing. Why? Because they are the most delightfully produced pieces of neo-eccentricity coming out of the book market today, and all with a story, and an interesting blurb. Obviously so soon after visiting, I'm not able to tell you that their books are any good, but I trust they are. I was met by a very well-spoken assistant who communicated her love of books so well. and the rest of this slender shop is devoted just to good books. Really good books. SO I was able to buy two, for a parent each. And felt smug and chuffed with my choices. Which is nice. Really well laid out and arranged, clearly the labour of love from the publisher to the shop, I had myself a very nice time in this lovely little bookshop!

A totally unique place - this isn't really just a bookshop, it's a concept and a mission as well…read more The idea is that it reprints forgotten books from the 20th century by mostly women writers - hence the name, Persephone - the ultimate in female fertility, the woman who could put every IVF doctor out of work by wrapping her legs around the earth from the gods. It's a cool concept, there are lots of reasons books go out of print and there are lots of reasons why some books take off and some don't. Not all sort the wheat from the chaff - lots of good ones slip through the big publisher's nets. Its ultra specialised admittedly but these people have passion and something from here can make a great present for someone with an interest in literature and this period.

We were walking around the Covent Garden when we spotted this shop. I am a big fan of Moomin, so I…read morewas delighted! We walked up the narrow staircase with excitement. The shop itself is rather small, so it was not easy to walk around with other people in the shop. They did have a good variety of items, from ornaments, clothes, bags, trays, books... Pretty much everything you can think of, they have it and more. The price point can be high, based on what you are looking for, but some items are rather affordable. We purchased the Moomin Comfort Food recipe book (LOL!!!), and can't wait to cook something out of that book! If you are a Moomin fan, it is worth checking it out!

If you're a Moomin fan, you'll love this store. I personally found the store to be smaller than I…read moreexpected, but the wide selection of books and merchandise and the theming make up for it.

I'm not much of a shopper on vacation, but I do make exception for bookstores. Hatchards is…read moreexceptional, and I'm so glad we made for it on our short trip to London. The oldest bookstore in the UK, Hatchards was founded by John Hatchard in 1797. It's been in its current location on Piccadilly since 1801. Hatchards has sold books to the royal family since Queen Charlotte (1744-1818) became a loyal customer. The store holds appointments by royal appointment to King Charles III and Queen Camilla. Beyond its amazing history, it's also just an incredible shop. Several stories, with a gorgeous spiral staircase, Hatchards sells everything: rare books, signed books, Harchards publications (The Hatchards Library), and so much more. My husband and I spent less than hour browsing Hatchards (in different sections; I lost him for a while), and we left with maybe 8 books. The store is so well stocked, I kept finding more books I wanted to take home. The customer service was friendly at checkout, which was the cherry on top of a great store. It is simply one of the nicest bookshops I've ever had the pleasure to shop at.

I adore this bookstore. They have multiple levels and endless novel options. If you don't see what…read moreyou are looking for all the staff can assist in finding it for you. They are super helpful and kind. I was able to snag a novel I was searching for that I couldn't find because it had a different cover than in the US. So happy they helped me find it!