Credit: Jim Linwood via Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 2.0
London certainly isn’t thin on the ground when it comes to its quirky bookshop offering. There are plenty of peculiar places in the capital city to head to if you fancy spending an afternoon perusing pages and adding an excessive number of titles to your ever-growing to-be-read pile. A barge floating on Regent’s Canal? Sure. A former high-security bank? Why not? A disused Tube station that unintentionally became one of London’s best-loved literary locales? Absolutely. Now, I know what you’re thinking. How did it unintentionally become a bookshop? Fear not, folks. I’m about to tell you. But first, let me give you a little bit of a backstory.
Osterley & Spring Grove Tube station
The abandoned station in which the bookshop in question can be found was originally called Osterley & Spring Grove. It opened in 1883 and was served by the District and Piccadilly Lines until 1934, when it somewhat had its thunder stolen by a newer and shinier station up the road (which just so happens to still be in use to this very day).
Osterley & Spring Grove station closed its doors that very same year. It was then left disused until World War II, when it served as temporary accommodation for soldiers and a machine gun emplacement. In the decades following WWII, the station building passed through various different hands, operating as a shop with a succession of owners. But in 1967, it was snapped up by a pair of artists (Tony and Pennie), and that’s where the story of the bookshop begins.
Credit: Sumit via Flickr / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 Osterley Bookshop
The artistic owners originally bought the building with the intention of using it as a space for them to create art. The council, however, insisted that it remained a shop in some capacity, and so Tony and Pennie bought a load of second-hand books, and started to sell them. And that, my friends, is how a former Tube station ticket hall became one of London’s most beloved second-hand bookshops.
Osterley Bookshop is still owned by the very same pair of artists, and it’s become somewhat of a local landmark. The charming spot is a treasure trove for bookworms and bibliophiles, with shelves, stacks, and piles of books filling every nook and cranny of the space. There’s an eclectic array of books available here, including some that date all the way back to the 1700s. And alongside the abundance of books, visitors can also have a rummage through an assortment of antiques and knick-knacks.
Credit: Kake via Flickr / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 (left) / Paul Robertson via Flickr / CC BY-ND 2.0
Earlier this year, it was announced that Osterley Bookshop would be permanently closing its doors. But thanks to an outpouring of local support, it’s been confirmed that the beloved bookstore will continue to operate, just on a smaller scale. Whilst Osterley Bookshop is currently open daily, it will only be open on the weekends from November. Better than not at all, hey?
📍You’ll find Osterley Bookshop at 168A Thornbury Road, Osterley, Isleworth, TW7 4QE.