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Brick Lane Bookshop is an independent bookshop in Tower Hamlets, London, established in 1978.

We are open 10am – 6pm every day.

You can shop online or in person. If you can’t find the book you’re looking for, please get in touch โ€“ we can order most books published in the UK by the following working day.

As a thank you to our loyal local customers, weโ€™re offering free delivery to Tower Hamlets residents for orders over ยฃ15.

We hope to see you soon!

Christmas Season Information

This Christmas season, we can’t wait to welcome you all as you peruse for presents and search for stocking fillers. We will be open everyday until Christmas Day, and then open as usual from December 29th, with the exception of January 1st.

To ensure that orders arrive before Christmas Day, please place those with First Class delivery by December 19th, and those with Second Class delivery by December 17th.

If you need some gift giving inspiration, why not check out recommendations!

Or, if you’re still unsure of what to get your book-loving loved ones, why not purchase them a Brick Lane Bookshop gift card?

November Bestsellers

Browse our stock online

Independent Publishing Subscription

Discover the world of independent presses with our brand new book subscription!

Here at Brick Lane Bookshop, weโ€™re passionate about connecting readers to books โ€“ itโ€™s our whole thing – so weโ€™re proud to unveil our new subscription service celebrating the best in independent publishing!

Over the year weโ€™ll spotlight twelve independent and small presses who are making waves in literary fiction and non-fiction. Each month youโ€™ll receive a new release, hand-picked by our booksellers, with a note explaining why we selected it and what we find unique and inspiring about its publisher.

Click here to find out more!

Events

The Brick Lane Bookshop Short Story Prize


Our Short Story Prize was launched in 2019. Our aim is to celebrate short stories, to give new writers the chance to be published, and to offer some financial assistance to write. Each year we publish an anthology of the twelve longlisted stories. We’re on the lookout for new, exciting, and diverse voices.

You can find out more about the 2023 Prize here, and buy this year’s anthology here.

โ€˜A formally inventive and consistently surprising patchwork
of stories. This wide-ranging collection shows how elastic
the short-story form is, and these writers are pulling it in
exciting new directions.โ€™ Gurnaik Johal

Read more about the competition here.

The BLB Podcast


The BLB Podcast is a project fromย Brick Lane Bookshop created to interrogate the short story form. We talk to writers about about they we love short stories, the writing process and how to get published.

Guests so far: Isha Karki, Aoife Inman, Jarred McGinnis, Jem Calder, Wendy Erskine, Leon Craig, Niamh Mulvey, Huma Qureshi, Ben Pester, Vanessa Onwuemezi, Keith Ridgway, Irenosen Okojie, Manuel Muรฑoz, Gurnaik Johal, Imogen Fox, Jess Walter & Eley Williams.

Latest episode: Episode 17: Attrib. with Eley Williams

Listen here, or on your preferred podcast app:
Apple, Spotify, Anchor, Pocketcasts

Gift Cards




Gift cards for our shop can now be bought online – load up any amount you want and have it emailed directly to the recipient.


Can be used to buy books online, and in-store too!

Join our Mailing List

We’ll send you regular emails featuring new stock, special offers, upcoming events and everything else Brick Lane Bookshop!

Find us on Social Media

Poet For Hire


Richard Knight is a poet-for-hire, and can be found on certain weekends set up outside our shop with his typewriter. Pay what you want and have a poem written for you while you browse!

Our History


Publishing, theatre, visual arts, writing, film, bookselling, events – our shop grew out of a vibrant local network of innovative activities. Ideas often sparked each other – pushing us into new, unexpected directions…

Explore our rich history, from the 70s all the way to the present, here.