It was wonderful to browse books again – customers and staff acted like long-lost friends

Jake Kerridge
·2 min read
General Manager Francis Cleverdon at the entrance door of Hatchards, London's oldest book shop, Piccadilly, London - Rii Schroer 
General Manager Francis Cleverdon at the entrance door of Hatchards, London's oldest book shop, Piccadilly, London - Rii Schroer
Coronavirus Article Bar with counter
Coronavirus Article Bar with counter

I haven’t really missed haircuts or shopping for clothes, but a great privation for me over the past year has been not being able to browse in a book shop. The rest of the group of people waiting outside Hatchards on Monday morning appeared to feel the same. We were like a group of rabbits waiting for the greengrocer’s to open.

Stefanie, the young woman at the front of the queue, told me she was desperate to get hold of a signed copy of Kazuo Ishiguro’s new novel Klara and the Sun – all online outlets had sold out. Another desperate customer was 75-year-old Patricia, who said that as she had no access to the internet she had been unable to buy books for months and was obliged to spend lockdown rereading her existing collection.

There was a light drizzle and so the staff eventually let us in a few minutes before the official opening time of 9.30, while the buzz of last-minute hoovering could still be heard in the background.

First customers in the children's books section: Leonora with two-year-old Elsa - Rii Schroer 
First customers in the children's books section: Leonora with two-year-old Elsa - Rii Schroer

It was wonderful to be able to browse among books again – especially in Hatchards, which claims to be the UK’s oldest bookshop. It was founded in 1797 by John Hatchard, who allegedly sold books from a barrow outside the present site. Until a year ago, the longest Hatchards had been closed was for three days during the Blitz, when the church next door was bombed.

Customers and staff greeted each other like long-lost friends after the latest enforced closure. Mothers came in with small children. One staff member raced up and down the vertiginous spiral staircase looking for a book a customer was after.

Hatchards imbues you with a sense of history; browsing there is so peaceful and inspiring that it feels more like meditation than shopping. There is a framed telegram from Queen Victoria on one of the walls, and a table that once belonged to Oscar Wilde.

Customers having a look around the shop - Rii Schroer 
Customers having a look around the shop - Rii Schroer

I was inspired to buy a paperback of Matthew Sturgis’s biography of Wilde, as well as a copy of Nadia Owusu’s Aftershocks, recommended by one of the Hatchards booksellers, who said it was one of the most gripping books she had ever read. I don’t know who was happier to be resuming a much loved-activity: me book-buying or her bookselling.

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