Hatchards gives you ten per cent of your money back, and lets you spend it immediately.
Earn one Rewards Stamp for every £10 spent in their shops or online. Every 10 stamps adds £10 to your Rewards Balance. You can spend that balance in shops or online with no minimum redemption.
Work it through: £100 of books earns £10 back, and there is no threshold before you can use it. Ten per cent with instant redemption is a better rate than any other London bookshop publishes, and exclusions apply only at the margins.
Booksellers since 1797
Hatchards has been selling books since 1797, which makes it Britain’s oldest bookshop and older than every hotel, gallery and club on this site. For scale, The Langham opened in 1865 and The Savoy in 1889.
It is on Piccadilly, a few doors from Fortnum & Mason, with Green Park and Piccadilly Circus either side of it.
They publish their own editions, which you cannot buy elsewhere
The reason to buy here rather than anywhere else, and most people walk past it.
Hatchards Library Editions, Hatchards Exclusive Library Editions and Hatchards Signed Editions are their own formats, produced under Hatchards Publishing.
Examples currently in stock: Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner as a Hatchards Library Edition at £16.99, Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis as a Hatchards Exclusive Library Edition, May We Feed the King by Rebecca Perry as a Hatchards Signed Edition at £14.99, and The Disappearers by Marlon James as a Hatchards Signed Edition at £20.
So a Hatchards signed first edition is a different object from the same book bought elsewhere, and the Library Editions are bound for them alone. That makes this the best bookshop in London for a present that cannot be matched online.
Delivery, and the £25 line
Free delivery on orders over £25. Otherwise £3.99.
Click & Collect is available from any Hatchards branch.
At £3.99, a single £18.99 hardback costs £22.98 delivered, so adding a second paperback to clear £25 is cheaper than paying the postage. Or collect in store for nothing.
They run a prize, a book club and a podcast
More programming than a bookshop needs, and all free to follow.
The Best First Biography Prize is their own literary prize.
There is a Book Club, Books of the Month, an events programme, and a podcast.
They also offer Bespoke Services, which is the route for library-building and commissioned collections rather than single purchases.
The author sections tell you what they are
Hatchards keeps standing sections for Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Agatha Christie, Beatrix Potter, J.R.R. Tolkien, P.G. Wodehouse, Virginia Woolf, Jilly Cooper and Paddington Bear.
That list is the shop’s self-portrait: canonical English writers plus two twentieth-century popular ones and a bear. If you are buying a gift for someone who likes one of those nine, there is a shelf waiting.
How to plan it
Join Rewards before you buy anything. Ten per cent back, £10 per 10 stamps, no minimum to redeem.
Buying a present: a Hatchards Signed or Library Edition, which cannot be bought anywhere else.
Ordering online: clear £25 for free delivery, or use Click & Collect from any branch.
Building a collection: ask about Bespoke Services.
Following it from home: the podcast and the Books of the Month.
Hatchards
- Address
- Piccadilly, London W1, a few doors from Fortnum & Mason
- Nearest
- Green Park and Piccadilly Circus
- Hours
- Shop hours vary by branch. Click and Collect available from any Hatchards branch
- Booking
- None needed. Events and the book club are run separately
- Price
- Bookshop prices. Free delivery over 25 pounds, otherwise 3.99. Rewards give a stamp per 10 pounds spent, with 10 stamps adding 10 pounds to your balance
- Standing
- Booksellers since 1797, Britain’s oldest bookshop, with its own publishing arm and exclusive editions
How to get in
Rewards return 10 per cent of spending with no minimum redemption, which is the most generous published scheme of any London bookshop. Hatchards Publishing produces Library Editions, Exclusive Library Editions and Signed Editions available nowhere else. Free delivery starts at 25 pounds, so adding a second book beats paying 3.99 postage.
Where to go next
Daunt Books is the other great London bookshop, where the stock is shelved by country.
Cecil Court is the street of antiquarian dealers, and Fortnum & Mason is a few doors along Piccadilly.
Questions we get asked
How does the Hatchards Rewards scheme work?
You earn one Rewards Stamp for every £10 spent in their shops or online, and every 10 stamps adds £10 to your Rewards Balance. The balance can be spent in shops or online with no minimum redemption, which works out at 10% back. Some exclusions apply.
How old is Hatchards?
It has been selling books since 1797, which makes it Britain's oldest bookshop. For comparison, The Langham hotel opened in 1865 and The Savoy in 1889.
What is a Hatchards Library Edition?
One of their own formats, produced by Hatchards Publishing, alongside Hatchards Exclusive Library Editions and Hatchards Signed Editions. These are bound or signed for Hatchards alone and cannot be bought elsewhere, which makes them the best gift option in the shop.
Does Hatchards do free delivery?
Yes, on orders over £25. Below that, delivery is £3.99. Click & Collect is free from any Hatchards branch, so a single hardback is cheaper collected than posted.
Does Hatchards run events?
Yes, an events programme, a Book Club, Books of the Month, a podcast, and their own literary prize, The Best First Biography Prize. They also offer Bespoke Services for building collections.
Written by Robert J Wills, no. 313 in the guide.
Last checked 6 October 2026 against the venues' own published information. Nobody pays to appear here and we take no bookings.
