Hatchards

LondonLife – St Pancras ‘book tree’…

by exploringlondon
PICTURE: JuliaC2006/Flickr (licensed under CC BY 2.0)

A Christmas tree with a difference, this year’s festive display at St Pancras International features a 12 metre high ‘book tree’ with a winding staircase and 270 shelves adorned with over 3,800 hand-painted books, including classics like Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol and CS Lewis’ The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. There’s also a series of nooks where passerby can ensconce themselves and listen to a five minute excerpt from an audio book. The display is the result of a collaboration with bookseller Hatchards.

Where’s London’s oldest…bookshop?

by exploringlondon

Hatchards on Piccadilly (right next to Fortnum & Mason) is generally accepted as being London’s oldest surviving bookshop.

It was founded in 1797 by John Hatchard in Piccadilly (there seems some dispute over whether it still stands on exactly the same site).

The shop currently holds three royal warrants for the supply of books to the Royal Household.

Among high profile past customers have been Queen Charlotte (wife of King George III), former PMs Benjamin Disraeli and  Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington, and literary figures such as Rudyard Kipling, Oscar Wilde and Lord Byron.

It remains popular with lovers of literature and is noted for hosting book-signings by prominent authors with many signed book on the shelves.

For more, see www.hatchards.co.uk.