Literary London

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

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Word on the Water

A bookshop in a 1920s Dutch barge on the Regent's Canal, with a wood stove below and a stage on the roof.

BookshopsGo inside

Photo by Photograph by Mike Peel ( www.mikepeel.net )., CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Book Barge was a wandering thing for years, moved on every fortnight by the canal's rules, until a campaign won it a permanent mooring by Granary Square in 2015. The hull is a hundred-year-old Dutch barge, the shelves inside hold new and second-hand books around a stove, and the roof carries a piano and a small stage for readings and jazz on summer evenings, with cushions on the towpath for the audience.

Where
Regent's Canal towpath, Granary Square, N1C 4LW
Nearest station
London King's Cross · 4 min walk

Hours

Monday12:00 – 19:00
Tuesday12:00 – 19:00
Wednesday12:00 – 19:00
Thursday12:00 – 19:00
Friday12:00 – 19:00
Saturday12:00 – 19:00
Sunday12:00 – 19:00

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.

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