Daunt Books Company Profile

Daunt Books was founded in 1990 by James Daunt in the beautiful Edwardian premises at 83 Marylebone High Street in London – originally built for antiquarian booksellers Francis Edwards in 1910.

At the heart of the shop is a long, galleried main room which has as its focus a beautiful arched window partly glazed with stained glass. The intention then, as now, was to arrange books principally by country, whatever the nature of the book – fiction or non-fiction, biography, history, guide or novel – and in so doing creating wonderful browsing both for the traveller and the general reader.

A premium has always been placed on informed bookselling and service and the shop attracted loyal fans immediately. It doubled in size a few years later, expanding to 84 Marylebone High Street and allowing us to offer a wider selection of children’s books, cookery and art, and by the end of the 1990’s, two further shops had been opened in North London – at Haverstock Hill, in Belsize Park, and South End Road in Hampstead.

With the now famous Daunt Books canvas tote bags increasingly seen on London’s streets, new shops opened in leafy Holland Park and on the Fulham Road in Chelsea in the 2000s. Finally in 2010 Daunt Books added its latest shop on Cheapside, next to Bow Church.