Day 12 – Hatchard Booksellers

London Bookshop Advent

Day 12 – Hatchard Booksellers

Hatchard’s has been selling books since 1797 and from the outside looks pleasingly Dickensian with its curved windows and dark green facade.

Close your eyes for a moment and you will see snow falling steadily onto Piccadilly as horse and carriages arrive at the entrance. The faces of young and old in Victorian dress are pressed up against the windows. Displayed inside are the latest copies of The Pickwick papers.  The door to London’s oldest bookshop, Hatchard Booksellers of Picadilly is always open, giving tempting glimpse of the shop where the Queen reputedly shopped for books.  The royal warrants above the door are testament to this.

It is the perfect bookshop for Christmas.  The decor lends itself to beautiful displays of festive floral arrangements and large wreaths.  The sweeping highly polished staircases, the carefully curated stacks of books on tables and carefully ordered on shelves, and the genuinely helpful and courteous staff who love to talk books.  All of this adds to the charm of Hatchards.

Each Christmas Hatchards publishes a beautifully bound limited edition of a carefully chosen reissue.  With cloth binding, a stylish dust jacket and beautiful endpapers these make a lovely Christmas present and could be the beginning of a collection for any booklover in your life.  Last year was The Shooting Party by Isabel Colegate, and The Red House Mystery’ by A.A. Milne.  This year it is Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis and Christmas Holiday by W. Somerset Maugham.  As a bonus this year they have also publishes a specially-commissioned Hatchards edition of Paddington and the Christmas Surprise. It has a seasonal red cloth binding and endpapers decorated with bears and more. I think this will be finding its way into my shoppping basket when I pop in later this week.

Hatchards has a timeless elegance and I think I can honestly say it is my favourite bookshop in London.  It is the shop I recommend everyone to visit.

Nearest Tube: Piccadilly Circus or Green Park