Camden Lock Books in London, United Kingdom

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Telephone:	+44 20 7253 0666
Website:	www.camdenlockbooks.co.uk
Address:	4 Saint Agnes Well Old Street Station, London, United Kingdom, EC1Y 1BE Barbican, Liverpool Street / Broadgate
Nearby public transportation stops & stations:	100 ftOld Street 230 ftOld Street Roundabout 370 ftOld Street Station

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Local time (London)	06:51 Saturday, 7 June 2025

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Description

Specialties

Camden Lock Books is an iconic independent London bookshop. Please feel welcome to enjoy our high level of customer service.

You can order most books, new or out of print, and we will search for them for you– this search service is free.

We feature bestselling new fiction at 3 for 2; we spotlight great hand-picked titles at less than half price (mostly cheaper than anywhere on the internet).

Our fairtrade greetings cards, handmade wrapping paper, and gift bags are from Zambia & India. We stock Penguin mugs, teatowels, deckchairs, bags, notebooks and postcards. Our Scrabble cufflinks & comprehensive Moleskine selection also make great presents. The jazz music on sale is largely from the superb ECM label.

Our huge range of books by photographers — many in new condition but no longer in print– is a significant public attraction.

History

Established in 1984.

In 1984 Jason Burley started business selling books in Camden Lock above Dingwalls (later renamed Jongleurs). The books were secondhand but new books were added after a few years. The better old titles were sold on the second Sunday of every month at the Hotel Russell bookfairs in Bloomsbury. Jason became the Chairman of the London Region of the P.B.F.A. and oversaw the launch of specialist bookfairs for Art, Travel and Childrens Books. As Camden Lock underwent development the bookshop moved to ever more prominent locations within the site. However, in 2002 the shop was moved to Old Street, the Silicon Roundabout for the potential for a bookshop in Shoreditch was yet to be fulfilled…

Meet the Business Owner

Jason B.

Business Owner

Born 1959 and schooled in Barnes, London. Bristol Uni. Jobs at University College of London and Institute of Mechanical Engineers as Library Assistant. Became a bookseller at Francis Edwards Ltd Marylebone. Launched Camden Lock Books in 1984 (at first the business was known as Lot 49 Books after the novel by Thomas Pynchon). Expanded my bookshops at Camden from 1984 until 2002. Moved business to Old Street in Shoreditch in 2002 until present. Live in Stoke Newington, cycle to work. Bring Rosie the dog (rescued black ‘collabratian’ –part collie, part labrador, part alsatian-, three years old) to work as often as possible.

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Jason B. says,

«Tasty bread»

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9 reviews of Camden Lock Books

No registration required

Marisol J.

Place rating: 5
London, United Kingdom

A great book store with a wide selection and affordable prices. I have been coming here for the past year and have always enjoyed browsing their selection of gently used books.

Denise Y.

Place rating: 5
London, United Kingdom

I popped into this tiny bookstore one day, fully expecting to be ripped off by absurd prices (i.e. Waterstones). What I found instead, was a lovingly-curated selection of new and gently used books, most of which were reduced by 50% or more of their listing prices. I bought three books for less than £10 and some cute postcards to decorate my new flat. The only drawback is that it’s way too easy to get to!

Nadine P.

Place rating: 5
Maida Vale, London, United Kingdom

I was rushing through Old Street station from the office to get to King’s Cross and just happened to see this gem of a shop that i’d never noticed before. Perhap’s I’d been walking around with my eyes closed.
Now I love technology. Kindle, iProducts etc etc and I can’t remember the last time I went into a real bookshop. This is the kind of place that makes you regret your decision ever to buy an e-reader. Seriously. It smells of books, paper and brought back lots of childhood memories. You are literally surrounded by books!
It wasn’t the books that originally drew me in though. It was the rails of great postcards that I’m now obsessed with buying as a result of Postcrossing.
The man who owns ths shop is a postcard fiend and has been collecting them for years. I’ve never seen such a great selection. Vintage book covers, some quite risqué postcards, lots of fun ones.
I currently hold the record for havig bought the most potcards in one go! I came home with 35 I think. And I almost missed my train. It was worth it though.

Natalie W.

Place rating: 5
Manchester, United Kingdom

I’d actually walked past this little bookshop a few times before clocking it. I then did a massive double take at the knock down prices in the window — £2.99 for great books such as Peter Carey’s Oscar and Lucinda! I love bookshops but generally try to avoid them at all costs because I love new books (so smooth! so crisp!) so much I always end up spending way too much money and accumulating more books that I have nowhere to keep. But I figured — £2.99 means it’s basically 1993 so these practical concerns cannot be an issue.
Of course, I ended up buying a full price book, but by then I had totally justified this to myself as supporting a local business, literature in general and obviously just Saving The World. It’s not a very big shop but managed to stock 3 titles (Handmaid’s Tale, Wolf Hall and Cloud Atlas) which despite their popularity I have recently not been able to find in such places as a giant Barnes and Noble in Philadelphia. I also heard the owner telling a customer he could order a book in for him. But you really would never be stuck for choice here, it’s a great selection and really fun to browse. I may have to start using a different exit…

Precious W.

Place rating: 3
London, United Kingdom

fabulous selection of books. I don’t know whether the woman on the till was having a bad day but she sure wasn’t at all friendly!

Linzi M.

Place rating: 4
London, United Kingdom

Amazon is great, it is. But when I need a book, sometimes I need it right now and can’t be waiting around! Plus I have an obsession with reading the first page and holding the book in my hands. I love bookshops and I hope they never fade away. Camden Lock Books is the perfect bookshop for me, tiny and stacked high with treasures and authors waiting for me to discover them.
So when I needed a copy of The Alchemist, I headed here. They have a sign outside that says they can order any book and have it waiting for you the next day.
But no need for that, I asked and was immediately presented with a copy. It’s a really popular book though, so maybe if you are looking for something obscure, they need to order it.
What I loved was the bookseller’s enthusiasm. He loved the book and animatedly told me how much I was going to enjoy it and asked me to come back in and let him know if I liked it.
You don’t get that service from Amazon.

Themak

Place rating: 5
London, United Kingdom

Having walked past this little scruffy shop almost every day on my way to the workshop, I finally popped in and was confronted by a fabulous selection of choice reads!
Its nice to see a bookshop that still cares about the quality of whats on its shelves.

Cari S.

Place rating: 4
London, United Kingdom

I am all for more shops like Camden Lock Books popping up in tube stations. In fact, I really don’t think that tube stations are properly represented for shops. What about the people who don’t want to walk up the steps to the outside — they want to make all their purchases within the station?
Thankfully, there are not many of those underground dwellers about, and I am certainly not one of them — but I do find myself often waiting for my friends to turn up on later trains here at Old Street tube, and instead of saying «I will meet you outside the cold, wet tube station’, why not spend some time in this book shop instead?
Camden Lock Books is small, but simply stacked with books. They specialise in new books which are in print, but will gladly track down any older books on request. While the books were mainly all full price, there was a stand with many books on offer. Some had dropped from £7.99 to £2.99. They don’t mind browsers, which was clearly what I was. I found Newspaper Bags on sale here– these are the bags made out of newspapers by Indian street children. They cost 50p and the money goes straight back to the charity. I brought a few, and I encourage you all to do the same!

Doirea

Place rating: 4
London, United Kingdom

Despite its title, this bookshop is curiously located in Old Street Station, having moved from its original location in Camden afew years ago. They have an eco-friendly policy and apparently buy and sell books that are slightly damaged — that would otherwise be turned into pulp… or something…
Anyway, their selection is pretty good — with an emphasis on good quality novels rather than trashy stuff, seemingly. At the moment there is a good discount going on the booker prize winning books from the last few years.