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Welcome


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 – we can order most books published in the UK by the following working day.

We hope to see you soon!

Events

The blb

Brick Lane Bookshop’s quarterly literary journal featuring essays, reviews, and creative writing.

the blb – Issue 02

the blb – Issue 02

£3.00
Shop now

The Brick Lane Bookshop Short Story Prize

Submissions for the 2025 Brick Lane Bookshop Short Story Prize are now closed.

The deadline for entries was 5PM, March 17th.


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 2025 Prize here, and buy the latest anthology here.

‘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.’ Gurnaik Johal

Read more about the competition here.

January Bestsellers

Browse our stock online

The Brick Lane Bookshop Subscription

At Brick Lane Bookshop we are passionate about independent and small press publishing. That’s why our monthly book subscription selects exclusively the best, boldest and most innovative new titles from independent publishers today, UK-based and international. These are publishers who push boundaries, bend genres and amplify new and underrepresented voices.

Each month you’ll receive a new paperback book chosen by our bookselling team, gift-wrapped in fully recyclable packaging and delivered to your door (or select our option for in-store collection). Sign up for three months or longer and you’ll also receive a limited edition Brick Lane Bookshop tote bag.

Choose from a range of subscription options below to get involved!


Click here to find out more!

The BLB Podcast


The BLB Podcast is a project from 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 Muñoz, 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.