What could well be the very last truly independent bookshop in London, will be gone soon. And I don’t mean Henry Pordes on Charing Cross Road, which I love, but Anthony Hall in Twickenham. He owns his entire building outright, and even though he is a specialist book dealer, has always maintained a small bookshop as a luxury addition to his main office, if you like. At one point, all nine rooms of the building were filled with books, but he’s in his 80s and is selling up. Most of his business is on the internet, as he says now. No need for the bookshop.
Wow, what a place. I sadly never had the pleasure, being a West/South-West Londoner and only really making it as far as Camden in my teens. I used to live in Marylebone and there is still a fantabulous little bookshop - as far as I know - called Archive, which deals with a lot of sheet music and retains a piano. It's a marvel. Buried in the backstreets just south of Church Street market, and just thinking about it makes me want to bike into town and give them all my money.
