Lambs Conduit Street - Persephone Books

Persephone Books reprints neglected classics by C20th (mostly women) writers. They are all carefully designed with a clear typeface, a dove-grey jacket, a 'fabric' endpaper and bookmark, and a preface by writers such as Julian Barnes, Eva Ibbotson and Polly Toynbee.

© David Gentleman

The shop is full of beautiful grey books, scented candles, classical music and easy chairs. 

'The Winds of Heaven is a 1955 novel about 'a widow, rising sixty, with no particular gifts or skills, shunted from one to the other of her more or less unwilling daughters on perpetual uneasy visits, with no prospect of her life getting anything but worse’ (Afterword). One daughter is the socially ambitious Miriam living in commuter belt with her barrister husband and children; one is Eva, an aspiring actress in love with a married man; and the third is Anne, married to a rough but kindly Bedfordshire smallholder who is the only one who treats Louise with more than merely dutiful sympathy. The one relation with whom she has any empathy is her grandchild.'

Recommended for a few peaceful hours in genteel surroundings

Lambs Conduit Street - Cosmo China

Cosmo China is based just off of Russell Square.

What a beautiful shop, packed full of lovely hand-painted bone china. Of special interest to me were these lovely children's plates, which would make lovely christening gifts.

They also have in their discontinued section a plate painted by Polly Dunbar

Not cheap, but if you need a special gift this is the place to come.