Top Ten Tuesday #410

Hi everyone! I hope you’ve all had a good week since I last did one of these, I had quite a quiet week last week but to be honest that was sorely needed after how busy the week before was. I am going to a Spanish conversation night at the place that holds my Spanish classes on Friday though, and I’m looking forward to that, it will be nice to meet people from some of the other classes and get to chat in a slightly less formal environment than the classroom.

Anyway, as always today’s Top Ten Tuesday (my 410th!) is courtesy of Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. Now this week’s topic was meant to be Bookish People I’d Like To Meet but I feel like I’ve done that in various forms over the years (authors, characters etc), so instead I’m going to be talking about Indie Bookshops In London* (*my local area anyway, London is huge and it will probably take me years to even scratch the surface of all the indie bookshops here*) I’d Like To Visit. I actually have a slight ulterior motive for this post, as I’m planning something fun for my next Jo Talks post in April, I’m going to do a Indie Bookshop tour day, very similar to the one I did in Edinburgh a few years back. Anyway, I’m going to do a similar thing in London next month, only just with independent bookshops, and I’d love your input about where you’d like to me go, if there’s any of the bookshops on this list that you’ve been to and really don’t think I should miss out on then please let me know. I have a provisional list of about five or six shops that are basically the ones that are the closest to me to get to, but pretty much all of the shops on my list are within a 15-40 minute walk/bus/train/tube journey from me, so if there’s any that you would really like to see me go to and talk about in that discussion post then do let me know! That’s enough of my rambling for the time being though, here are my potential bookshop tour options:

1. BookMongers (Brixton)

BookMongers is based in Brixton which is fairly close to where I live, it’s about a fifteen minute bus ride away. It’s a second-hand bookshop which I love and don’t go to nearly enough of and it just looks really lovely and cosy with a whole lot of books to choose from! It’s also been there for a long time, they celebrated 30 years last year which is so cool and definitely seems like one I’d like to check out.

2. Round Table Books (Brixton)

Round Table Books is also based in Brixton (actually quite close to BookMongers so I could hit both at the same time!) and it’s a bookshop run by the publisher KnightsOf who focus on diverse and inclusive children’s books. There obviously would probably be less of interest for me here given that it’s a children’s focused shop, but it would still be cool to go and see what they have, maybe some YA that could be of interest and obviously would love to support their work of getting diverse books to kids if I can.

3. Herne Hill Books (Herne Hill)

Herne Hill Books looks like such a lovely, cosy little bookshop and it’s the sister bookshop to a local bookshop that I’ve been into after work before, Clapham Books which was really nice so I’d love to visit their sister shop. I love supporting small bookshops where I can and it’s not ridiculously far for me to get to (about twenty minutes on the bus) so I can definitely see myself visiting here one day.

4. Backstory (Balham)

Backstory is based in Balham which is again really close to me, just over twenty minutes by bus or about a thirty minute walk (not that I would!). I love how vibrant the shop is, the blue really stands out, and it looks as if they have quite a wide selection of books. I also really love that the owner is a former journalist who started his own bookshop, you never know, could be a future career path for me! They also do events at Backstory which would be really cool to go to if there was one that interested me as I wouldn’t have to go into the centre of London.

5. Battersea Bookshop (Battersea Power Station)

Battersea Bookshop is based in the new Battersea Power Station which I have been meaning to go to for ages (well since it opened last year!) and it looks really great, so big and like there’s a decent selection of books so I’m looking forward to going there and checking it out for myself. Again, it’s really not too far to get to, 21 minutes by bus, or I can get the bus from where I live to Nine Elms and then it’s only a five minute tube journey from there.

6. Goldsboro Books (Westminister)

One I’m sure many of you will be familiar with, they of the gorgeous special editions, Goldsboro Books! I’ve been wanting to visit Goldsboro Books for a while, but when I’ve been in London, I’ve just not been in that particular area and it’s never really worked out. Now that I live here though, I definitely want to go and see all the pretty special editions in person. It might be a little awkward to do on my Indie Bookshop tour as very few of the bookshops on my list are in Central London, they’re either in SW or SE London, but I’m thinking I may actually do a separate day of just touring the bookshops of Cecil Court because apparently there are like twenty just on that one street. Who knew?!

7. London Review Bookshop (Bloomsbury)

This is another one that’s potentially slightly out of the way for the bookshop tour as it would require going into Central London and coming out again so would just be a little awkward to fit on a route where I’m mainly in South London, but it’s one I definitely really want to check out. For one thing, it has a cake shop and if there’s anything that will get me even more excited than books (sorry books), it’s cake. But aside from the cake, it does also seem like it has a huge range of books which I would love to go and check out.

8. Hurlingham Books (Fulham)

I mean this just looks incredible, there’s nothing that can pull me in quicker than seeing stacks upon stacks of books in a bookshop’s window! It’s a second-hand, family run bookshop that’s been there since the sixties and looks like the kind of place that you could absolutely get lost in which I love. It’s a little further out of the way for me, about thirty minutes on the bus, but it looks like it would be worth the trip!

9. South Kensington Books (South Kensington)

I so love the front of this shop, it looks like one of those really charming old bookshops (which apparently it is, as it’s been around since the 1940s!). From the picture on the website, it looks like they have quite a wide range of books and I think it’s cool that the books they stock reflect the areas of interest of the museums in the local area, that’s quite a nice tie-in. South Kensington is fairly close for me to get to, it’s around 25 minutes on the bus and I’ve been up there a couple of times since we moved to go to the museums, so maybe next time I’m there, I’ll stop in here too (if I don’t go to it on my Indie Bookshop tour in April).

10. The Riverside Bookshop (London Bridge)

This is another one that’s slightly on the longer side for me, takes about thirty minutes by tube to get to from where I live (which admittedly is not that far, longer here is relative to the fact that all of these bookshops are relatively close!). However it does look like it has a wide array of choice of books and looks really lovely inside from the pictures on their Instagram so I would definitely love to get down there at some point and see what they have to offer.

11. Belgravia Books (Victoria)

Belgravia Books is based in Victoria, which is very easy for me to get to as it’s only a five minute train journey from Clapham Junction. I love the look of this shop, I think it looks really lovely and from the pictures of the interior I’ve seen online, it seems like they have a fair selection of books. I also love that they have their own publisher attached to the shop as well, Gallic Books, I think that’s really cool.

12. Nomad Books (Fulham)

Nomad Books looks like a really lovely shop with a wide selection of books. Again, it’s a little further out of the way for me, but I suppose if I did a trip to Fulham I could hit both this one and Hurlingham Books in one fell swoop.

13. Housmans (Kings Cross)

We’re getting into the ones that I’m probably unlikely to visit on my Indie Bookshop tour just because they’re quite far out from me and really not in the right area that I’m generally going to be sticking around when I do that (generally South London), but that I’d still like to visit. Housmans is not far from Kings Cross, so I may stop in there next time I’m going to the get the train as it does sound like a really cool place, open since the 40s, they’re a radical bookshop stocking books on all kinds of topics from feminism, Black politics, LGBTQIA+ politics, pacifism, environmental justice and anarchism so it does sound like there would definitely be some books of interest for me there.

14. Gay’s The Word (Camden)

Again, I don’t think Gay’s The Word is one that I’ll visit on the Indie Bookshop tour I’m planning for April, just because it’s kind of far out of my way, but the next time I’m up at Kings Cross, this will be on the list as well as Housmans! I’ve heard such good things about this place over the years and I’d really love to see their selection of books. I also think the history behind the place is just really cool, it’s the oldest LGBT bookshop in the UK and for a time was the only one and was opened by a group of gay socialist activists in the 70s.

So there we go, those are just some of the many independent bookshops in London I’d like to visit! Have you been to any of these? If you have, which ones do I absolutely need to prioritise on my indie bookshop tour in April? Would you also like to visit any of these shops? And let me know what your favourite indie bookshop is in your area (if you have one!).

Next week’s topic is the first of our annual TBR lists (or second I guess since the Winter one covers both the end of 2022 and beginning of 2023?). Anyway, it’s our first one to make this year, the Spring TBR list. My Winter TBR actually went far more successfully than I was expecting so I’m hoping the Spring one will be the same!