Twenty three independent dealers trade on Cecil Court, and on a Sunday exactly one of them is open. Watkins Books, at 19 to 21, runs midday to 7pm. Every other shop on the lane is Monday to Saturday.
Turn up on a Sunday afternoon expecting the famous bookshop street and you get a very pretty pedestrian alley with the shutters down.
Where it is
Between Charing Cross Road and St Martin’s Lane, in the West End. Nearest tube is Leicester Square, with Covent Garden, Piccadilly Circus and Charing Cross all a short walk.
It is pedestrian, Victorian, and shops have traded here since the 17th century. It takes two minutes to walk from end to end and most of a morning to walk properly.
The opening hours, shop by shop
These do not line up with each other, which is the practical problem with a street of independents.
Watkins Books, 19 to 21: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday 10.30am to 6.30pm. Thursday and Saturday 11am to 7.30pm. Sunday midday to 7pm. The oldest esoteric bookshop in London, selling books, tarot, crystals, jewellery and incense. It is both the only Sunday opening and the latest closing on the street.
Goldsboro Books, 23 to 27: Monday to Friday 10am to 6pm, Saturday 11am to 5pm.
Sotheran’s: Monday to Friday 10am to 6pm, Saturday 11am to 5pm.
Marchpane, 16: Monday to Saturday 11am to 6pm.
Alice Through The Looking Glass, 14: Monday to Saturday 11am to 6pm.
Travis and Emery Music Bookshop, 17: Monday to Saturday 10.15am to 5.45pm, closed Sunday. The earliest opener on the street.
The usable window, in other words, is a weekday between 11am and 5.45pm, when everything is certain to be open at once. Thursday and Saturday evenings are the only times anything stays open past 6.30, and that is Watkins alone.
What the shops actually sell
The street is not generically bookish. It is a run of narrow specialisms, which is why dealers come from abroad for it.
Sotheran’s is the longest established rare book dealer in Europe, founded by Henry Sotheran in York in 1761 and in London since 1815. Its departments are Early Books and Manuscripts, Literature and Poetry, Sciences and Ideas, People and Places, and Art and Avant-garde, and it still works from the original Victorian shelves. It has three central London sites.
Goldsboro Books is the leading UK specialist in signed first editions, with authors coming in to sign most weeks and public events in the shop. It started in 1999, after four years as a partnership between two book collectors, David Headley and Daniel Gedeon, and runs the largest first edition book of the month club in the country.
There are two separate Lewis Carroll specialists on the same short lane. Marchpane, open since August 1989, is the premier West End specialist in Carroll, Alice in Wonderland, Alice Liddell, and the associated books and ephemera. Alice Through The Looking Glass, at number 14 and open since 2012, sells first editions and rare illustrated editions alongside new pieces made with British artisans.
Travis and Emery handles new and antiquarian books on music, secondhand sheet music, opera programmes, playbills, libretti, prints and photographs.
Beyond the books: Bryars and Bryars for maps, Colin Narbeth and Son for banknotes, Coin Heritage and the London Medal Company, Stephen Wheeler Medals, Daniel Bexfield Antiques for silver, and a run of galleries including Darnley Fine Art, Panter and Hall, Emanuel von Baeyer and Art Deco Gallery London. Sworders auctioneers and Tenderbooks are also on the lane.
How to use it
Go on a weekday late morning. Walk it once without going in, then go back to the two or three that are actually your subject, because these are dealers rather than browsing shops and the conversation is the point.
The street keeps its own history project: Bryars and Bryars collects old photographs, memorabilia and recollections of Cecil Court, and describes the record as a work in progress with the twentieth century memories of booksellers and their customers still being gathered.
One detail from that archive gives the flavour better than any description. A photograph of the bookseller Bob Chris on the telephone at 8 Cecil Court, probably in the 1950s, shows a sign pinned above the mantelpiece reading: do not mistake courtesy on my part as an invitation to stay all day.
What is around it
It sits in the middle of Theatreland, a few yards from Leicester Square, close to the Coliseum and the Royal Opera House, and between the shops of Covent Garden and the galleries of Trafalgar Square.
Our bookshops page covers the rest of the city’s bookselling, and Covent Garden covers the walk east.
The West End shows are the reason most people are in this part of town, and this is the best thing to do in the two hours before a curtain.
Cecil Court
- Address
- Cecil Court, London WC2, between Charing Cross Road and St Martin’s Lane
- Nearest
- Leicester Square, with Covent Garden, Piccadilly Circus and Charing Cross all a short walk
- Hours
- Most shops Monday to Saturday, roughly 11am to 6pm. Only Watkins Books opens on a Sunday, midday to 7pm
- Booking
- None
- Price
- Free to walk. The shops are dealers, with prices to match
- Standing
- A pedestrian Victorian lane of 23 independent dealers in art, antiques, books and curiosities, trading since the 17th century
How to get in
Travis and Emery opens earliest at 10.15am and Watkins latest, to 7.30pm on Thursdays and Saturdays. The reliable window when everything is open at once is a weekday between 11am and 5.45pm.
Watkins Books
- Address
- 19 to 21 Cecil Court, London WC2
- Nearest
- Leicester Square
- Hours
- Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday 10.30am to 6.30pm. Thursday and Saturday 11am to 7.30pm. Sunday midday to 7pm
- Booking
- None. 020 7836 2182
- Price
- Books, tarot, crystals, jewellery and incense
- Standing
- The oldest esoteric bookshop in London, and the only shop on Cecil Court open on a Sunday
How to get in
Also the latest closing on the street, at 7.30pm on Thursdays and Saturdays.
Goldsboro Books
- Address
- 23 to 27 Cecil Court, London WC2
- Nearest
- Leicester Square
- Hours
- Monday to Friday 10am to 6pm. Saturday 11am to 5pm
- Booking
- None. 020 7497 9230
- Price
- Signed first editions, fiction and some non-fiction
- Standing
- The leading UK specialist in signed first editions, trading since 1999
How to get in
Authors visit most weeks to sign books, and the shop hosts public events. It runs the largest first edition book of the month club in the country.
Marchpane
- Address
- 16 Cecil Court, London WC2
- Nearest
- Leicester Square
- Hours
- Monday to Saturday 11am to 6pm
- Booking
- None. 020 7497 0567
- Price
- Antiquarian and rare children’s books
- Standing
- Open since August 1989, and the premier West End specialist in Lewis Carroll and Alice
How to get in
One of two separate Alice specialists on the same lane: Alice Through The Looking Glass is two doors down at number 14.
Where to go next
The bookshops page covers the rest of the city, and Covent Garden covers the walk east from the end of the lane.
The West End shows are two minutes away, which makes this the best way to spend the hours before a curtain.
Questions we get asked
Is Cecil Court open on Sunday?
The street is, but almost nothing on it. Watkins Books at 19 to 21 is the only shop open on a Sunday, from midday to 7pm. Every other dealer on the lane trades Monday to Saturday.
What is Cecil Court?
A pedestrian Victorian lane between Charing Cross Road and St Martin's Lane in the West End, lined with 23 independent dealers in rare books, maps, coins, banknotes, medals, silver and art. Shops have traded there since the 17th century.
What is the nearest station to Cecil Court?
Leicester Square. Covent Garden, Piccadilly Circus and Charing Cross are all a short walk away as well.
What time do the Cecil Court shops open?
They differ. Travis and Emery opens earliest at 10.15am, Goldsboro Books and Sotheran's at 10am on weekdays, and Marchpane and Alice Through The Looking Glass at 11am. The window when everything is reliably open together is a weekday between 11am and 5.45pm.
Which is the oldest bookshop on Cecil Court?
Sotheran's is the longest established rare book dealer in Europe, founded by Henry Sotheran in York in 1761 and trading in London since 1815. Watkins Books is the oldest esoteric bookshop in London.
Where can you buy signed first editions in London?
Goldsboro Books at 23 to 27 Cecil Court is the leading UK specialist, with authors visiting the shop most weeks to sign. It opens Monday to Friday 10am to 6pm and Saturday 11am to 5pm.
Written by Robert J Wills, no. 213 in the guide.
Last checked 5 October 2026 against the venues' own published information. Nobody pays to appear here and we take no bookings.
