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Post by Deleted on Jul 2, 2017 21:32:16 GMT
I am spending most of the day in London tommorow and wondered if anyone knew any good stagey related or just interesting shops to visit in London.I will be at the national so will look at the bookshop and knew there used to be the dress circle shop but wonder if there are any others that would have 2nd hand plays or programmes or other interesting items like that. Thanks!
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Post by Deleted on Jul 2, 2017 22:33:57 GMT
I was going to recommend the Samuel French theatre book store, but checking their website, alas it seems to have gone the way of Dress Circle since April. |
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Post by tmesis on Jul 2, 2017 22:59:59 GMT
Not looked for a year or two but there used to be one or two shops in Cecil Court (WC1) that might fit the bill.
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Post by martin1965 on Jul 3, 2017 6:02:40 GMT
Sadly for a city like London that is the joint theatre capital of the world, there arent any theatre related shops! The only one is the National which is now mostly a tatty gift shop anyhow. For Shakespeare there is the Globe. We used to have Samuel French and Dress Circle but both are no more. All very sad and a bit rubbish😥
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Post by duncan on Jul 3, 2017 9:55:16 GMT
When Dress Circle was open all people did was slag it off  |
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Post by schuttep on Jul 3, 2017 9:55:32 GMT
We used to have Samuel French and Dress Circle but both are no more. All very sad and a bit rubbish😥 I agree but it's our own fault. We are mostly using Amazon rather than BAM shops. Cecil Court is a great idea tmesis as I seem to remember a shop that sells programmes there. |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 3, 2017 11:31:20 GMT
I agree but it's our own fault. We are mostly using Amazon rather than BAM shops. I think it's more that the desirability of locations has changed. It used to be that if you wanted an out-of-the-ordinary book you were best off heading for somewhere with loads of bookshops so you'd have plenty of options when looking to see if someone had the book in stock, and because of that those locations became desirable and expensive to rent. But now anyone who wants something in their hands today can check stock from home and then head straight to the shop that has what they want, which means there's not really any advantage to being in an expensive location. |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 3, 2017 12:33:02 GMT
Niche shops closing is almost always more to do with the price of rents than the customers themselves. As with food waste or water waste, we're made to feel guilty as individuals for the contributions we make to the problem, when our contributions are absolutely minuscule in comparison with supermarkets throwing away unsold food, or industrial misuse of water, or rental prices shooting up beyond what most businesses could reasonably afford. Our local well-loved butcher is facing having to close his doors despite his business being steadily booming because of rent increases, and his is not a unique story.
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Post by viserys on Jul 3, 2017 14:26:48 GMT
Niche shops closing is almost always more to do with the price of rents than the customers themselves. That is certainly true, though when I walk down Monmouth Street these days, I do wonder how these little clothes shops there make enough to cover the Covent Garden rent. I mean, Dress Circle was always busy when I was in there and they had plenty of "niche" products not available anywhere else such as foreign cast recordings, vocal selections, merchandise from shows, etc. whereas those clothes shops just have ... well, clothes. Like hundreds of other shops in London. I for one see nothing special in them. I recently visited the theatre café for the first time and I was surprised/delighted by the place - all the signed posters (and the signed toilet doors!), the props and other bits from various shows and so on, I really liked it there and thought that for theatre lovers it was at least something special and not the 56th Costa/Nero/Starbucks etc. within a square mile of Theatreland. |
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Post by crowblack on Jul 3, 2017 14:59:29 GMT
2nd hand plays or programmes or other interesting items like that. There's a small theatre / arts new and second hand bookshop opposite the Young Vic on the road called The Cut near Waterloo station (by Byron Burger), so not far from the National Theatre. I think it had old theatre programmes too, and some sort of performance room in the back (?). A lot of drama students in there last time I went - a nice, old-fashioned place to kill some time before a show. |
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Jul 3, 2017 17:30:12 GMT
Niche shops closing is almost always more to do with the price of rents than the customers themselves. That is certainly true, though when I walk down Monmouth Street these days, I do wonder how these little clothes shops there make enough to cover the Covent Garden rent. .... those clothes shops just have ... well, clothes. Like hundreds of other shops in London. I for one see nothing special in them. Fronts for criminal activity/money laundering. |
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Post by schuttep on Jul 4, 2017 14:20:25 GMT
Niche shops closing is almost always more to do with the price of rents than the customers themselves. I agree it's a rent problem. But it's because BAM shops have to pay rent that they charge top dollar prices. And customers can get it cheaper on Amazon. So it's a customer issue as well as people won't pay full price anymore. The shop on The Cut is good - it even has a theatre - but it's on the edge of the West End and not big. |
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Post by joem on Jul 10, 2017 0:14:29 GMT
2nd hand plays or programmes or other interesting items like that. There's a small theatre / arts new and second hand bookshop opposite the Young Vic on the road called The Cut near Waterloo station (by Byron Burger), so not far from the National Theatre. I think it had old theatre programmes too, and some sort of performance room in the back (?). A lot of drama students in there last time I went - a nice, old-fashioned place to kill some time before a show. I didn't know Byron Burger had designed Waterloo Station. |
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Jan 15, 2020 11:29:47 GMT
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Jan 15, 2020 11:54:15 GMT
There are some on music magpie too. You have to look under Classical, then subcategory Soundtracks and Musicals.
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Post by schuttep on Jan 16, 2020 11:08:26 GMT
The Royal Court now has a Samuel French bookshop and small coffee shop upstairs but I think it might only open just before and after performances. Lots of choice of play texts and theatre-related books, though. I even got a signed copy of Antony Sher's "The Year of the Fat Knight" there late last year.
I recently bought 4 out of the 7 hardback Methuen Drama Modern Plays 1959-2019 there, and I couldn't find those on Amazon to buy individually (in hardback, that is):
Shelagh Delaney's "A Taste of Honey" (bought)
Edward Bond's "Saved" (bought)
John McGrath's "The Cheviot, The Stag and the Black, Black Oil"
Caryl Churchill's "Top Girls" (bought)
Sarah Kane's "Blasted"
Kwame Kwei-Armah's "Elmina's Kitchen"
James Graham's "This House" (bought).
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