Bookseller Crow onthe Hill

Justine Crow and Jonathan Main ran their bookshop on Westow Street for more than a quarter of a century — the name is her surname plus the birds of Crystal Palace Park — and The Bookseller named them Bookshop Heroes in 2020 for how they carried the place through the pandemic. Jonathan died in September 2025 after a brief illness, and the guide records that plainly because the shop's answer is part of its story: the team launched the South London Writing School in his name, with a scholarship attached, and the events calendar runs on into 2026 under Justine and long-time colleague Karen McLeod. A bookshop that responds to grief by teaching people to write is doing its job at the highest available level.