The Most Beautiful Bookshops in London, and the Library Rooms You Can Visit

London has a handful of rooms built for nothing but books. Some are shops you can walk into on any afternoon. Others are libraries that open their doors to the public only on one weekend a year.

I have written about each of them separately over the years. This page brings together the most beautiful bookshops in London and the library rooms around them, and how to get inside each one.

Which Are the Most Beautiful Bookshops in London?

My shortlist is three. Daunt Books on Marylebone High Street, for its Edwardian galleried room. Hatchards on Piccadilly, for being London's oldest bookshop and still feeling like a private house.

And Cecil Court, the Victorian alley off Charing Cross Road, which is not one shop but a whole street of them.

Then there are the library rooms. The British Library is open to everyone, every day, for free. The Maughan Library's Round Reading Room and the upper floors of Senate House are harder to reach, and they are worth planning for.

All of it is within about half an hour of everything else. If you have one day, you can see all three shops and the British Library, and still have time for lunch.

My one-day route starts at Daunt in the morning. From there I walk down through Mayfair to Hatchards, about twenty-five minutes, and on to Cecil Court. Then I take the Tube to King's Cross for the British Library, which is open until 8pm from Monday to Thursday.

There are more I have not written about yet. Foyles, on Charing Cross Road, has been selling books since 1903 and has a huge flagship a few minutes from Cecil Court. John Sandoe, off the King's Road in Chelsea, has been in the same small Georgian houses since 1957.

Word on the Water is a secondhand bookshop on an old barge, moored on the Regent's Canal by King's Cross, a short walk from the British Library. And the London Review Bookshop, beside the British Museum in Bloomsbury, is a good stop on the way to Senate House.

On Piccadilly, Maison Assouline is part bookshop and part cocktail bar, in a former Lutyens bank.

Daunt Books Marylebone

The room was built for books. It went up in 1912 for the antiquarian booksellers Francis Edwards, and it was designed as a bookshop rather than converted into one. The long back room has oak galleries down both sides and a skylight the length of the ceiling.

At the far end is an arched stained-glass window. On a bright day, the light falls across the galleries and the whole room glows.

The shop as it is now dates from 1990, when James Daunt opened a travel bookshop here. He shelved everything by country instead of by category, so a novel set in Italy sits next to an Italian guidebook and a history of Rome. It still works that way. There are other Daunt branches across London, but Marylebone is the one to see.

I have a full guide to Daunt Books Marylebone, including the building's history and what to look for.

Is Hatchards the Oldest Bookshop in London?

By most counts, yes. John Hatchard opened a bookshop on Piccadilly in 1797, and there has been a Hatchards on Piccadilly ever since. It moved along the street in 1801, to the building that is now number 187, and it has never left.

Inside it feels less like a shop than a townhouse full of books. There are five floors of narrow stairs, patterned carpet and round mahogany tables stacked with new titles.

Waterstones owns Hatchards, and it has left the shop alone rather than rebranding it. That is why Piccadilly still has its own 1797 name, its own booksellers and its own character.

My guide to Hatchards goes into its history, from the Clapham Sect to the rival claims on the oldest-bookshop title.

What Is Cecil Court?

Cecil Court is a short pedestrian alley between Charing Cross Road and St Martin's Lane, lined on both sides with Victorian shopfronts. Most of them are antiquarian and specialist booksellers.

The land has belonged to the Cecil family, the Marquesses of Salisbury, for centuries, and they still own it. The buildings you see went up between the late 1880s and 1894.

It is the best street in London for a slow browse. There are shops for first editions, children's books, maps and prints, music, and old banknotes. Many close on Sundays, so go on a weekday or a Saturday. Watkins Books, founded in 1893 and in the court since 1901, is one of the oldest esoteric bookshops in the world.

My guide to Cecil Court has a shop-by-shop list, plus the stories of Mozart's lodgings here in 1764 and the alley's years as Flicker Alley.

Can You Visit the British Library for Free?

Yes, every day. You don't need a Reader Pass to go inside the British Library on Euston Road, sit in its public spaces, or see the Treasures gallery. Only the big temporary exhibitions are ticketed.

The book room here is the King's Library, a six-storey glass tower in the middle of the building. It holds around 65,000 printed volumes collected by George III, with gilded leather spines behind the glass.

Find a seat at one of the desks around the tower. Readers work right beside the old books, and it is one of the calmest places in London to sit. When you leave, St Pancras station and its Victorian hotel are right next door.

The building, by Colin St John Wilson and MJ Long, opened in 1998. It was Grade I listed in 2015, less than twenty years later. My guide to what you can see for free at the British Library covers the Treasures gallery, including Magna Carta and the Beatles' lyrics.

Can You Go Inside the Maughan Library and Senate House Library?

Yes, but you need to plan. The Maughan Library, on Chancery Lane, is King's College London's main library, and it was built from 1851 as the Public Record Office. Its Round Reading Room, a domed room ringed with tiers of books, is one of the most beautiful rooms in London. The building also keeps the Weston Room, the former Rolls Chapel, with its stained glass and old monuments.

It is a working university library, so the public usually gets in only during Open House London, on one weekend each September. I went on an Open House Saturday, and I have written about the Maughan Library and its history.

Another Open House library room is the Old Library at 113 Chancery Lane, the Law Society's headquarters.

Senate House, in Bloomsbury, is easier than most people think. Charles Holden's Art Deco tower was built between 1932 and 1937, and it was George Orwell's model for the Ministry of Truth. During the war it housed the Ministry of Information, where his wife Eileen worked. Senate House Library sells day tickets to members of the public, so you don't have to be a student.

The library fills floors four to eighteen, with the public reading rooms on four to seven. It holds around three million volumes, including some 120,000 printed before 1851. The ceremonial rooms elsewhere in the building usually open only for Open House. My guide to Senate House explains how to get in.

Visiting London's Book Rooms: Practical Notes

📍 Where: Daunt Books, 83–84 Marylebone High Street. Hatchards, 187 Piccadilly. Cecil Court, off Charing Cross Road. The British Library, 96 Euston Road. The Maughan Library, Chancery Lane. Senate House, Malet Street.

📅 Open days: The shops and the British Library are open seven days a week. The Maughan Library's Round Reading Room opens to the public during Open House London each September.

🎫 Admission: Free for the shops and the British Library's public areas. Senate House Library sells day tickets.

⏰ Opening: The British Library is open from 9.30am to 8pm Monday to Thursday, 9.30am to 6pm on Friday, 9.30am to 5pm on Saturday, and 11am to 5pm on Sunday. Check the shops' own websites for their hours.

🚇 Getting there: Baker Street for Daunt, Green Park for Hatchards, Leicester Square for Cecil Court and King's Cross St Pancras for the British Library. Chancery Lane for the Maughan Library and Russell Square for Senate House.

☕ Food: Daunt has no café, but Fischer's is on the same street. Fortnum & Mason is a few doors from Hatchards, and the British Library has its own cafés.

⏳ How long: A full day for all six, or a morning for the three shops.

📷 Best time: Weekday mornings for quiet shops, and a bright day for the Daunt skylight.

🗺️ Nearby: Fortnum & Mason is a few doors from Hatchards, and the Wallace Collection is ten minutes from Daunt.

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