Hurlingham Books

Hurlingham Books on Fulham High Street, near Putney Bridge, is possibly the oldest independent bookshop in south-west London — Ray Cole opened it in 1968 and still, decades on, opens it up most mornings himself. It is a second-hand and antiquarian shop of the old, teetering, wonderful kind, its hours cheerfully erratic (closed, sometimes, for the football). A genuine survivor run by the man who started it. Call ahead, then go and lose an hour among the stacks.