Famous places down the street where I work Hatchards (187 Piccadilly)
Hatchards is the oldest surviving booksellers in London, founded in 1797 and with customers including Disraeli, Oscar Wilde, Lord Byron and me. Visiting Hatchards is reminiscent of being inside a rambling old house, with six floors of little rooms all linked together curling round a central staircase. There's a good range of books on the shelves, not just your usual corporate bookshop fodder, which is great. And this is also rather a posh bookshop. Those two gentlemen in the photo standing outside in their grey slacks really aren't Hatchards target audience at all, oh no. Hatchards specialise more in the sort of hardbacks that would look good on the bookshelves of the library in the west wing of one's stately mansion. History (especially royal history), biography (especially upper class biography), cookery (especially chefs with double-barreled surnames) and gardening (especially books to buy for one's gardener).
The gardening connection is particularly appropriate because it was here, exactly 200 years ago, that seven friends met to found the Horticultural Society of London. Two of these friends were John Wedgwood (of pottery fame) and Sir Joseph Banks (scientist and naturalist who sailed with Captain Cook). Prince Albert became President in 1858, since when this Horticultural Society has been officially Royal. Nowadays the RHS is responsible for the Chelsea Flower Show, a numberofbiggardens around the country and generally doing good in the world of horticulture. I'm sure Hatchards would be able to sell you a history of the organisation, just don't wear your best gardening clothes when you visit.
Famous places down the street where I work
Hatchards is the oldest surviving booksellers in London, founded in 1797 and with customers including Disraeli, Oscar Wilde, Lord Byron and me. Visiting Hatchards is reminiscent of being inside a rambling old house, with six floors of little rooms all linked together curling round a central staircase. There's a good range of books on the shelves, not just your usual corporate bookshop fodder, which is great. And this is also rather a posh bookshop. Those two gentlemen in the photo standing outside in their grey slacks really aren't Hatchards target audience at all, oh no. Hatchards specialise more in the sort of hardbacks that would look good on the bookshelves of the library in the west wing of one's stately mansion. History (especially royal history), biography (especially upper class biography), cookery (especially chefs with double-barreled surnames) and gardening (especially books to buy for one's gardener).
