Phlox Books

Aimée Madill came to Leyton via Belfast and a stint at Shakespeare and Company in Paris, and opened Phlox on Francis Road in 2017 with a model stated on the sign: books, booze, coffee. The shelves are sharply picked, the bar pours natural wine and craft beer among them, the espresso is Allpress, and the shop closes for lunch on weekdays — an hour of civilisation the trade largely abandoned and this shop did not. Francis Road's rebirth as a village street of independents has a handful of anchors; this is the literate one, licensed.