The Bookstores of London — And Why They Helped Me Write a Book

By Dirk Ebener – March 27, 2026

The Reading Room at the British Museum in London

There is something that happens to you when you spend time in a bookstore on Piccadilly in London, which was opened in 1797. The noise of the world outside falls away. Phones go into pockets. Time moves differently. People who have never met each other stand shoulder to shoulder in front of the same shelf, each one looking for something they cannot quite name but will recognize the moment they find it. That is not retail. That is something older and more important than retail. Enjoy reading "The Bookstores of London — And Why They Helped Me Write a Book."

I have traveled to more than sixty countries over the past forty years. I have stood in markets in Istanbul, sat in tea houses in Seoul, and watched the Atlantic Forest wake up at dawn in Brazil. I have had meals that changed the way I see food and conversations that changed the way I see people.

But it was the bookstores of London that made me finally sit down and write.

Not one bookstore. Several. Hatchards on Piccadilly, standing since 1797. The Notting Hill Bookshop on Blenheim Crescent, where the queue outside told its own story before I even stepped through the door. Foyles on Charing Cross Road, five floors of the kind of organized abundance that makes you forget you had somewhere else to be. Each one is different. Each one is doing the same quiet, essential thing.

What stopped me was not the books themselves. It was the people holding them.

I watched a small child run her fingers along a row of spines—just touching, not grabbing. She showed instinctive respect for these objects, as if she already understood they were worth handling gently.

I watched adults without their phones. Not because the stores asked, but because they forgot. Something on a shelf was more interesting than anything in their pocket. In a bookstore selling books since before most countries existed, that is significant.

I stood in Hatchards and felt the weight of it. Two hundred and twenty-nine years of readers climbing those stairs, running their fingers along those shelves, carrying something home that would change the way they saw the world. I thought about all the books that had passed through that building. All the stories that had found their readers there.

I thought—my book should belong here. I want the stories of Pablo and the parrillero, Captain Michael and the Silver Girl, Miss Hattie and the squash casserole, to sit on a shelf like these—patient, ready, waiting for the right reader.

That thought did not start the book. But it made me stop making excuses about finishing it.

Bookstore Visits — A Growing Collection

That experience is why the Bookstore Visits page exists on this site. It is my personal collection— not a directory, not a sponsored list, but a record of doors I opened, shelves that stopped me, and conversations with booksellers.

The London stores are the beginning. More are coming — from Nashville to Chattanooga, from Dahlonega to wherever the next journey takes me.

And if you own or know a bookstore worth visiting — one with a story, a character, a reason to make the detour — I want to hear about it. Submit your bookstore through the contact page, and it may find its place on this growing list.

Because the best bookstores, like the best travel stories, deserve to be shared.

Dirk H. Ebener is the author of Travel That Makes Sense: Slow Down, Go Deeper, Come Home Different, published in December 2026. www.travelthatmakessense.com · @travelthatmakessense

---

Dirk Ebener in Londin

Dirk Ebener is a global traveler, food storyteller, and founder of Food Blogger Journey, and the author of Travel That Makes Sense. With more than four decades of personal and professional travel across Europe, Asia, and beyond, he focuses on meaningful journeys shaped by food, culture, and human connection. Dirk is the author of the forthcoming book Travel That Makes Sense, where he encourages travelers to slow down, travel thoughtfully, and bring home stories that last.

Interesting Hashtags

#TravelThatMakesSense #TravelWriting #MeaningfulJourneys #SlowTravelLife #AuthorInProgress #TravelMemoirWriting #PeopleFoodCulture #WritingTheJourney #TravelAfter50 #TravelStoriesThatStay #Books