Open: 7 days 10.00 - 8.00.
Large stock of general secondhand books & comics.
This is the best shop in London for reasonably priced second hand graphic novels. Also decent arts and sci-fi section. Achieves a high turn over by regularly reducing the prices on the tickets until the book sell- oh that other bookshops would do this! George Marshall 03.04.09
Excellent store with a large basement area. Enjoyably gruff owner with some newer 2nd hand SF books on hand. Basement was all mixed up and in no order, but 1st floor was well sorted. I Baillie 26.04.11
Great little bookshop. Basement was mixed up but great prices £1.00 or less. Managed to get two books here for £1.50 - absolute bargain. Would have liked more time here to have a good rummage. Spooky Mulder 12.05.11
Little room to move in this grubby shop with unfriendly staff. Wouldn't bother with it. Mandalay Emporium 31.05.11
Regularly here. Disagree with the last post. This is a superb place although chaotic, I rarely come away disappointed. Basement is worth sifting through junk that needs pulping and there re regularly new, review and proof copies available at decent prices upstairs, Yes it is cramped but long opening hours mean you can avoid peak times. Staff are eclectic and can be uncommunicative but what the hell, good cheap books... jon morgan 09.06.12
What a superb place to find in London. Yes, the comics are of the non-pulp variety but the books were a varied and pleasant surprise. Paid visits on successive days only because I could not carry away all I wanted to purchase on my initial visit. Prices were incredibly low. The only downside was the ultra-bored shop assistant. Chris Harte 19.06.13
Deserves to win an award ... for the surliest staff in London. Mandalay Emporium 17.09.13
Many new titles on the shelves. There has obviously been a clean up of the old stock. Prices still quite acceptable although it now seems as if their internet business is expanding. Staff still surly. Chris Harte 06.06.15
Staff still surly and uncommunicative and lacking any sense of customer interaction or welcome (as well as awful taste in 'music'). The place, being partly a comic book shop is frequented by unwashed nerds (as opposed to us book buying and well groomed nerds) who make browsing the nearby books on narrow aisles somewhat challenging and hazardous. Today's example was eye -watering! That said the books are generally of a good standard in terms of quality and quantity and I even knocked one off my wish list as well as finding several others of interest. Worth persevering, perhaps with a vintage respirator ... Jon Morgan 23.10.15
Surly staff for sure, but part of the attraction. One of my favourite London Bookshops, even if the comic section seems to be growing. Reasonable stock at keen prices, especially given the location. Well worth a look if you are in the area. Steve Newman 24.11.15
One of my favourite London bookshops, but it was in chaos today. They are in the process of moving 50 yards down the road, to numbers 30 & 32. Apparently one shop for books & one shop for comics. Good idea, as the original premises was getting very crowded with the comics winning the battle for space! Not sure which shop will sell the books and which the comics, but will call in again next time I am in the area to confirm. Steve Newman 18.04.16
This has now moved into two separate premises at 30/32 Pembridge Road, A short walk down from the old premises towards Portobello Road. At first sight the shops are clean and tidy and better organised than previously, but the stock of both comics and books seems diminished. There is still work going on behind the scenes so there may be scope for expansion. On the plus side, there seems to be a new tranche of staff, who are considerably less rude than before. The builder's jackhammers and electrical saws are also significantly more musical than the stuff that used to be played in the old shop. Jon Morgan 20.04.16
I have been a customer here for many years despite the appalling surliness of the staff. However, today they reached an all-time low. I was looking up books on my phone when one of the longest-serving staff members came up to me and threatened me - and I quote: "Either stop looking up books on your phone or f**k off". So I plumped for the latter option - and yes, he did use the "F" word. His excuse was that it was "immoral" to buy books to sell on at a profit and it was better if I were to sod off. Which I did - never to return. Mandalay Emporium 29.05.18
My specialism is photography, so I was delighted to find an impressively strong section here, perhaps second only to Marcus Campbell in London. Some unusual titles, including monographs by Lee Friedlander and Shomei Tomatsu that are rarely seen in the UK. Interesting sections too on art and design, the latter easily missed on low shelves in the central cabinet. Prices seemed a little above average, with some honourable exceptions. I didn't witness any rudeness from the staff (see various posts above) - but my request for a discount was briskly refused! Nicholas Sack 01.10.18
Suffering, like many in central London, from the curse of the empty shelf. There was already much less fiction than in the old shop and now the back room has books turned face on to try and conceal the lack of stock. I used to come out of here with armfuls of recent issues, now it is rare that I buy one or two books. Still, in most cases the prices are reasonable given their monthly discounting on the price labels. Jon Morgan 06.02.20
In its original location there was not room to swing a cat but great books. Now the back room is echoing and what few books remain on the shelves are turned cover out to fill the gaps. Culled books, lying on the floor, which would once have gone into a 50p basement or book cemetery as it was known. Perhaps this presages a re-stock. It certainly needs it. Its model is great and book prices are reduced the longer a book stays on the shelves. They just need the stock now. Firedrake 25.10.21
An odd shop. The main shop is now given over to records and the proprietor in charge when I visited today was clearly only really interested in that. Loud rhythmic ‘garage’ type music pounded out continuously. The section of photography books is still extensive. Also prominent is a ‘cult’ section. But many of its volumes didn’t look very ‘cult’ to me!!
The back room has paperback books all labelled ‘fiction’ for £2. Here there are some bargains which are clearly not ‘fiction’ but the owners are not really into classifying books. A strange experience- not really worth the visit!! PeterD 08.11.22
Visited on 30 July for the first time in years - the shop has at some point split into two premises - the comics are now a few doors up the road, which previous posters may have missed. I was surprised that there were no SF or fantasy titles in the bookshop, but these turned out to be at the back of the comic shop. Prices can only be described as optimistic, even for London, though to be fair, many of these books were in excellent condition. NWAD for me, but might pay off for serious collectors of older SF looking for VG copies. Justin M 20.08.23
I found several interesting/unusual/quirky titles among the stock here. They have a good selection of old crime and thriller paperbacks. In the centre of the shop are some tables with a wide range of magazines - some of which would probably be more at home on a top shelf! The back room is well stocked with paperbacks and comics. Generally, I thought the prices were reasonable. Jon R 28.10.24
Open at advertised times
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