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Cecil Court: Famous in New York! |
Court of the independent bookseller
People want advice and to see and touch the books for themselves, say proud traders
YOU won’t find it on the map, most cabbies have never heard of it and for the Richard and Judy book-clubbers it may as well be an abyss of dust, broken-spines and ancient relics (and that’s not just what’s on the shelves).
Despite being proclaimed the highest concentration of antiquarian books in the world, it is said Cecil Court is more famous in New York than in London.
But as the recession bites and the appetite for bank-emptying first edition Winnie the Pooh’s, JK Rowling’s signature and 16th-century Latin manuscripts is on the wane, can the street where time has stood still for more than a century survive and prosper?
With dozens of closures in adjoining Charing Cross Road and nearby Bloomsbury over the past year, it could be just a matter of time before Cecil Court is afflicted by the same fate.
The traders say not. They have drawn a line in the sand and vowed to defend one of the last-remaining bastions of Old England – a true one trade street and riposte to the faceless chains that dominate the market.
One of the “white knights” of Cecil Court, Tim Bryars, 34, who runs a shop specialising in early editions of Greek and Latin classics, says people’s need for expertise has never been more at a premium.
“There is no substitute for coming into a shop. The internet has obviously affected trade and the economic climate is not exactly favourable but with books I think the internet has been a bit of a false dawn,” he said. “You can’t tell anything about the condition.
“How do you know when they say something is there that it really is? There are a lot of fakes out there and every day we get people coming in that have been duped.
It feels like people are coming back because they want advice and they want to see the books and touch them for themselves.”
But advice isn’t the only reason people are flocking back. There are more ephemeral forces at work.
David Drummond, 78, the street’s longest-serving trader and former professional circus clown, is one of them.
Step over the threshold of his Pleasures of Past Times store, and be prepared for customer service the old-fashioned way. You might not emerge for a couple of hours, but the trip will have been well worth it.
“In many ways it’s harder than its ever been but we’re not gloomy,” said Mr Drummond.
“People always come back. You can’t beat the experience itself.
“It’s about the unknown and what you might find, as well as the thrill of the hunt. And the fact is there will always be people interested in running bookshops in Cecil Court. There will always be someone mad enough to want to do it.”
And there is yet more reason for cheer.
A new book about the street has just been launched. Completely unsolicited, the story of Cecil Court: London’s unique street for books, is almost as interesting as the street itself.
Italian journalist Saverio Paffumi stumbled across Cecil Court while writing an article on London for an Italian travel magazine. So besotted was he by the street, he decided 200 words were not enough and wrote a whole book. Barely speaking a word of English, he brought on board compatriot Maria Grazia Marino and the rest, as they say, is history.
The book has been translated from Italian (bizarrely it is about to go on the shelves in the authors’ homeland) and can be found in a number of shops in the street.
Laid out in the
17th century, Cecil Court is still owned by the family from which it takes its name, the Cecils, who are descendants of Robert Cecil, the spymaster of Queen Elizabeth I.
According to folklore, the sounds of a young Mozart once rang out over the street, while he lodged with barber John Couzin at number 19.
Booksellers and publishers started to move in at the turn of the century. Among them were William and Gilbert Foyle who opened their first shop at number 16 in 1904.
It has never looked back and the current flock of shopkeepers hope it never will.
Mr Bryars said: “The bookshops around the British Museum can be counted comfortably on the fingers of one hand. There’s hardly anyone left on the Charing Cross Road and other streets around here which used to be bookish, like New Row, are now lined with chains. Cecil Court is the line in the sand.”
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