Daunt Books is a chain of independent bookshops founded by James Daunt with the Marylebone branch being the first acquisition. It was bought by Daunt in 1990 – before that it was an Edwardian bookshop built in 1910 which claims to be the world’s first custom-built bookshop. It’s one of those places that turns up all the time on best bookshops in London lists and as I happened to be walking past it on my most recent trip to London I decided to pop in and have a look for myself.
I don’t find myself in Marylebone very often and on this trip I wanted to head to Regent’s Park (a future post) before I had to catch my train home, so I didn’t spend a lot of time here.
I only really walked around the main floor and admired the large window and the long oak galleries that you don’t see much of these days. I didn’t go downstairs but I did take a photo from one of the oak galleries to down below.
What’s interesting about the books are that a lot of them are arranged by country, no matter the genre – Daunt originally specialised in travel books and literature. (Naturally I purchased a book myself – The Louvre by James Gardener – which is slowly making its way up my to be read pile!)
It has a lovely atmosphere and I can definitely see why it makes so many “best of” lists, it really is a great place to visit if you love books.
Louise Jayne's Blog 
Perfect timing.I plan to see it too on my upcoming London trip🙂
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I hope you like it! What else have you got planned for your trip?
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Christmas lights and markets, walking around, a few things…
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Sounds great! It’s ages since I’ve been in London at Christmas
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It’s a beautiful and charming place, I really must make the effort to visit next time I’m in London. I had no idea it was purpose built; like you I’ve spotted it on many a list,but assumed it had been built for something else and reborn as a book shop.
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It’s really beautiful, I wish I’d had a bit more time to explore. One of these days I plan to do my own tour of all the bookshops that make these list to see them for myself. And feed my book addiction!
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