Literary London

Where the books were written, set, sold, printed and buried: from the Globe to the graves, the bookshops to the presses.

This season's book talks, festivals and exhibitions are in What's On: Books & writers

Waterstones Piccadilly

The largest bookshop in Europe, eight miles of shelves in the modernist Simpson's building on Piccadilly.

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The shop's entrance from the pavement: curved travertine steps with Waterstones Piccadilly set into the floor in dark letters, glass doors either side, and tables of books, a Christmas tree and a spiral staircase inside. — The doorway on Piccadilly, in December. Photo by Matt Brown, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The 1936 Simpson's building on Piccadilly from across the road: six storeys of long ribbon windows between bands of pale stone, Waterstone's on the fascia and the old Simpson's name still by the door, a crowd on the pavement. — Simpson's of Piccadilly, Joseph Emberton's building of 1936, the bookshop since 1999. Photo by Ewan-M, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

A chrome stair lamp with two white glass globes on a slender pole, against a sweeping staircase with a glass balustrade and a wall of fluted glass panels. — One of Simpson's original stair lamps, still on the stairs. Photo by Freeaspirations, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

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Joseph Emberton built Simpson's in 1936 as the most advanced department store in London - a curtain of glass and travertine, concealed lighting, an open plan on every floor - and it became a bookshop in 1999 with the bones intact. Six floors of books, with a floor for children built round a circus, a games flagship, first editions, a bar with a view over the rooftops on the fifth, and an events programme that runs from prime ministers to poets in the basement. The building is protected at the highest historic grade, and the lifts are the originals.

Where: 203-206 Piccadilly, W1J 9HD
Nearest station: Piccadilly Circus · 2 min walk

Google Maps waterstones.com

Hours

Monday	09:00 – 21:00
Tuesday	09:00 – 21:00
Wednesday	09:00 – 21:00
Thursday	09:00 – 21:00
Friday	09:00 – 21:00
Saturday	09:00 – 21:00
Sunday	12:00 – 18:00

Hours from the page that lists them, checked 5 September 2026.

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Data is compiled from public sources including OpenStreetMap, under the ODbL. Hours change often, so check before making a journey.