11 Book and Magazine Shops in East London

If you are looking for authentic bookshops and somewhere to get inspiring publications, you’ve come to the right place. We would like to introduce you to some of our favorite shops in East London where you can spend a Sunday afternoon browsing through traditional books and unique artists’ independent publications.

 In alphabetical order:

Artwords Shoreditch
69 Rivington Street, EC2A 3AY

Located in artist-dense Hoxton, Artwords offers a massive collection of up-to-date books from all over the world as well as contemporary visual arts publications and magazines. You can also find many fascinating books on modern visual culture, covering fine art, design and fashion in this independent bookshop.

 

Bookartbookshop
17 Pitfield St, N1 6HB

This small shop is located in Hoxton, in the corner of Pitfield Street. Bookartbookshop sells and promotes unique artists’ books as well as artsy limited editions and press publications, regularly launching exhibitions. Just by passing by, you’ll be amazed with the window displays of this shop!

 

Bricklane Book shop
166 Brick Lane, E1 6RU

This small indie bookstore grew out of a lively local network of groundbreaking activities and beliefs that happened to sparked one another. Here you’ll find a great variety of fiction, local history and non-fiction books. If you’re interested in joining a book club or a writing group, this is the right place! Meetings take place usually on Mondays and Tuesdays and members get 15% off on the relevant titles.

 

The Broadway Bookshop
6 Broadway Market, E8 4QJ

If you’re looking for an amazing selection of literary fiction, poetry, philosophy, politics, biography, music, children’s books and almost any other genre, the Broadway Bookshop is just what you’re looking for! This small attractive shop is located by the canal end of the popular and busy Broadway Market in Hackney. It promotes carefully selected publishers, stocks many New York Review titles and interesting reprints of long forgotten but still precious publications. The shop also holds a permanent exhibition space, used to support local emerging artists.

 

Burley Fisher Books
400 Kingsland Rd, E8 4AA

If you’re looking for quality fiction and non-fiction as well as poetry and design books, here’s the place to go! Burley Fisher Books is located between Shoreditch and Dalston and specializes in new title books by independent presses. They host regular events with authors, both local and from further afield. There’s also a café in the shop so you can enjoy a cup of tea or coffee whilst browsing through books.

 

Camden Lock Books
Old Street Station, EC1Y 1BE

Camden Lock Books is located in Old Street Station and is famous for being one of London’s most traditional independent bookshops ever. Here, you can find a fantastic collection of photographic books, local history and books on contemporary music (& Jazz & World music CDs).

 

Libreria
65 Hanbury St, E1 5JP

We can categorize this bookshop as being one of the most unique in London. There is a no-phone policy so that customers are not distracted from the precisely curated selection of books. Libreria is the ideal place for you to meet books and people (in an analogue way) through seminars, workshops, gigs and performances and a printing press on the bottom floor.

 

Magculture
270 St John St, EC1V 4PE

This breath-taking shop is located in the heart of Clerkenwell, and holds a monthly series of talks by magazine makers delivering inspirational conversations about their creative process (do book in advance as these events sell out quickly!). Magculture offers a vast selection of magazine indie titles as well as more established ones coming mostly from the UK and the US but also India, Australia, Germany, and others, covering food, art, science, culture, fashion, photography, sport, travel and more. You’ll find a large but carefully curated variety, making it the perfect place for inspirations as you’ll definitely leave with a couple of mags under your arm.

 

Magma
117-119 Clerkenwell Rd, EC1R 5BY

This shop in Clerkenwell is packed with a different assortment of books and magazines covering aspects of contemporary visual arts, advertising, art, architecture, design, illustration, photography, typography and many more! Magma also has a wide-range of innovative and original products such as t-shirts, totes, small furniture, jewellery, posters and homewares, which are made in collaboration with different artists, illustrators and designers.

 

Pages of Hackney
70 Lower Clapton Road, E5 0RN

If you’re looking for an eclectic selection of contemporary and classic fiction, children’s books, politics, environment, feminism, art, cookery books here’s the right place! Located on Lower Clapton Road, Pages of Hackney is an award-winning independent bookshop that since 2008 became a community and cultural hub, offering regular events with authors and speakers. In the shops’ basement you can find a wide-range selection of second-hand vintage books such as Penguin Classics.

 

TI PI TIN
47 Stoke Newington High St, N16 8EL

Originally created in 2009 as an online platform, TI PI TIN is an artist-run project space devoted to sell, support and promote artist-led publications. It offers a diverse range of exciting and thought-provoking limited edition books as well as small press monographs, journals and zines. You should also keep an eye on their dynamic events program which includes engaging talks, screenings and social gatherings focused to give visitors the opportunity of debating about contemporary independent art publishing.

 

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