Watkins Books

Watkins Books has traded on Cecil Court since 1901, having been founded in 1893 by John M. Watkins, a bookseller and friend of the Theosophist Madame Blavatsky, to serve London's fin-de-siècle occult revival. It is often cited as the oldest esoteric bookshop still trading anywhere, stocking astrology, alchemy, tarot, Eastern religion and psychology across a narrow shopfront and basement. The business passed out of the Watkins family in 1971 and was bought out of bankruptcy in 2010 by the publisher Etan Ilfeld, who kept the stock and character intact. Staff still offer the kind of specialist recommendation that made the shop a reference point for spiritual seekers through the twentieth century. Cecil Court itself, pedestrianised and lined with antiquarian dealers, is sometimes cited as an inspiration for Diagon Alley.