Hidden gem: Walden Books, Chalk Farm — a place of 'eccentricity and magic'

Left agelong capable and I’ve recovered astir ambitions wane. The amps successful my caput roaring stone prima dreams were flicked to standby years ago, and present they are off. But I’ve ne'er rather fixed up connected wanting a library. I’d similar the full shebang: floor-to-ceiling walnut; ladder connected a track; the ex libris stamp. I’d similar the kids to inquire if I’ve work a publication and maine to portentously archer them everything is alphabetised adjacent door. Having a one-bed level with the quadrate footage of a cracker is getting successful the mode of this, but a lad tin dream.

A bookshop is built connected brand-new copies, but a room is not. A room takes clip trawling done junk shops and antique shops, and crucially, due second-hand bookshops, similar those lining the Charing Cross Road and Cecil Court. Like 1 that’s connected Harmood Street, which sits astir halfway betwixt the underground stops for Chalk Farm and Camden.

There is thing singular astir Harmood Street; you mightiness reasonably extremity up connected it having taken a incorrect turning successful hunt of a adjacent bronze said to beryllium a likeness of Amy Winehouse. It is simply a thoroughfare of beauteous Victorian and Georgian terraces, and modern interpretations of both. But 1 of these aged houses, with its ivy-covered partition and equine chestnut tree, is different. It has a frontage, archetypal enactment up successful 1979 and seemingly not touched since: connected fading yellow, greenish letters person been attached, Walden Books, each successful caps and somewhat crooked. A beforehand country that became a shop.

Walden Books holds a unusual benignant of distinction. Looking arsenic it does, being wherever it is — appearing, really, from obscurity — it is not famous, not that galore bookshops marque it connected to the A-list. But it is known worldwide among booksellers and collectors, among those with libraries and the unusual sorts who imagination of them. It has grilles that support its windows, which are rolled down excessively from Monday to Wednesday, erstwhile the store stays shut. Eccentric hours are portion of the charm. The grilles are astir apt a conceit, but Walden’s estimation comes from its stock. All of it is valuable, immoderate monetarily.

There are hints aboriginal on. Before the motion and the doorway is simply a courtyard that shouldn’t beryllium rushed past, filled with weather-beaten bookcases connected wheels lined adjacent beside each different (larger readers whitethorn privation to instrumentality skinnier pals to bash their searching). Paper signs held connected with brownish portion separate what each offers: poetry, art, chronicles of the occult, ruminations connected Renaissance art, Russian lit and royalty from each times and places. Afternoons browsing these tin go meditative; determination is thing soothing astir moving a thumb implicit pages of ideas you mightiness ne'er person considered. There is faint magic successful this, that theories agelong forgotten are resurrected done reading. There tin beryllium a consciousness of uncovering artefacts, a literate archaeology. Perhaps that’s the scent of book-binding glue addling the mind. And caput you, each present and again there’s thing not magic but bafflingly obscure. You think: who convinced the steadfast to people this? Who slept with whom?

David Tobin began Walden Books, and inactive runs it now. Before Walden opened, helium ran a publication stall astatine Hampstead Community Centre and made a surviving gardening. He was 26 astatine the time. That it is not called Tobin Books is elucidative of Tobin; his store is not an ego trip. It is unsurprising that it was not him but Jeff Bezos who made billions selling books online (though Walden has sold online for astir 25 years). His store is named aft Henry David Thoreau’s publication Walden, sub-titled Life successful the Woods. It is astir the 2 years Thoreau spent successful a compartment successful Massachusetts, astir clip spent simply and cleanly. Ask Tobin and helium mightiness accidental Thoreau is simply a reminder astir the value of ensuring enactment does not specify a life. There are different things to beryllium acrophobic with, he’ll say. What things? Ah, they’re wrapped up successful their jackets. But it is worthy asking Tobin; helium is simply a antheral who seems to bask pithily talking done titles, suggesting this and that. Some publication dealers are imperious gatekeepers. Tobin is the benignant to usher anyone implicit the threshold.

As such, his store is egalitarian. In the week, you mightiness find sorts with furrowed brows and fierce determination moving their fingers on spines successful hunt of who-knows-what, similar accountants checking for mistakes. They are bookkeepers of a antithetic sort. But connected the weekends the store is simply a beacon for others — the young successful their year-round corduroy, certainly, but those excessively who travel conscionable to locomotion among the floor-to-ceiling shelves, to look up and see the titles, and wonderment what’s inside. Not everyone is bookish. And beside the oddities are racks and rows of fiction, paperbacks starting astatine hardly immoderate wealth astatine all, alongside out-of-print hardbacks and archetypal editions. These commencement astatine possibly 50p and ne'er look to get overmuch supra £50; £100 goes a agelong mode here. Mostly.

On the weekends the store is simply a beacon for others — those who travel conscionable to locomotion among the floor-to-ceiling shelves

David Ellis

In a solid furniture beryllium the rarities — not conscionable the large names successful aged particulate jackets but treasures from different time. Books not conscionable from the 20th period but the 17th too. Hard covers, manus carved. You volition request to inquire Tobin astir those.

Walden is simply a fewer things. It is simply a store to physique libraries with. On its shelves are bound countless records of feelings and theories, of stories and dreams. These books grounds past and are past themselves. But the store is simply a record, too, of astir fractional a period of collecting, exploring, trading and buying, each done by its sole owner, the antheral who lives upstairs. Tobin has not written anything. But with Walden, helium has a life’s work.