A Writer's Guide to London: Libraries, Bookstores, Writing Groups, and Presses

The British Library is the national library. Its Reading Rooms need a free Reader Pass, which you get at Reader Registration on the Upper Ground Floor. Check which research services are available before you plan a day there.

The Southbank Centre says the National Poetry Library holds the world's largest public collection of modern poetry. Joining is free with photo ID and a recent bill showing your address. It is closed on Mondays, and the JCB Glass Lift gives step-free access to Level 5.

Senate House is the central library of the University of London and the School of Advanced Study, and most students and staff of University of London colleges join free. Anyone else can buy a day ticket, Monday to Saturday, for reference access to the arts, humanities and social sciences collections. Bring photo ID and proof of address.

The London Library is an independent subscription library of about one million volumes in the arts and humanities, with five reading rooms and 160 desks among the stacks. Dickens and Woolf were members. Ask about the supported rate and the young-person membership for ages 16 to 29, and look at the Emerging Writers Programme if you are starting out.

Wellcome Collection is a free museum and library whose collections cover thousands of years of health and medicine across cultures. Browse the shelves, or request items in the Rare Materials Room.

The City of London's public library on Level 2 of the Barbican Centre has study seating and free Wi-Fi. Its Music Library adds listening and study booths and practice pianos. It is closed on Sundays.

The London Review Bookshop is an independent literary bookshop a street from the British Museum. It is open daily.

Gay's the Word opened in 1979 and calls itself the UK's oldest LGBT+ bookshop. It stocks fiction, poetry and plays alongside rare books and nonfiction, and it hosts launches and readings in person and online.

Housmans is a not-for-profit radical bookshop that says it stocks the largest range of radical newsletters, newspapers and magazines of any shop in Britain, and it sells zines too. Its in-store events are recorded for its podcast. It also runs book groups.

John Sandoe has been independent since 1957. The shop now takes in the two old shops next door, with room for some 30,000 titles across the humanities. It posts author talks and readings as podcasts and is open daily.

Skoob sells second-hand general and academic books and bills its stock as London's broadest second-hand selection. If you are clearing your shelves, email first; it buys from the public by appointment.

Treadwell's specialises in the occult, magic and mysticism. It runs online lectures and workshops, some of them live, and members can watch more than 80 recorded lectures.

Libreria shelves its books by theme, under headings such as 'Wanderlust' and 'The City'. It runs a programme of cultural events and is closed on Mondays.

Brick Lane Bookshop grew out of a local network of publishing, writing and events that goes back to the 1970s. It is open every day.

Word on the Water sells books from a barge on the Regent's Canal and is open daily. It runs a Creative Writing Group, and it will order any book for UK delivery.

The Barbican's public spaces are free to use. You can buy coffee at the Foyer bars and cafe or from Urban Baristas at the Cinema Cafe, and the library on Level 2 has study seating and free Wi-Fi.

The Royal Festival Hall has added seating to its foyers, and you may bring your own food and soft drinks. Some foyers close to non-ticket holders while audiences arrive for performances. The National Poetry Library is upstairs on Level 5.

The Reading Room is free and mixes books you can browse with artworks and objects. There is a café on site.

Prufrock has served coffee and food on Leather Lane since 2011. Booth seating, Wi-Fi and sockets make it easy to stay a while, and it is open daily.

Store Street Espresso is open daily, a few minutes' walk from Senate House Library and the British Museum. Treadwell's is on the same street.

The Lamb dates to the 1720s. Sylvia Plath was a regular, and Charles Dickens visited. It serves pub food daily.

Rules was founded in 1798 and calls itself London's oldest restaurant. Its private dining rooms are named for Graham Greene and John Betjeman.

The French House is a Soho pub where writers and artists have long gathered. Its small upstairs dining room serves lunch and dinner Monday to Saturday from a menu that changes daily.

The Troubadour was founded in 1954 and became a cornerstone of the British folk revival; Bob Dylan and Paul Simon both played there. Today it runs as a live music venue and restaurant, with a pub and a garden.

St. JOHN runs the London Review Bookshop's café, next door to the shop.

Spread the Word was founded in 1995 and now trades as the London Writers Centre. The charity is an Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation and works with writers underrepresented in publishing, among them Black, Asian and Global Majority writers, D/deaf and disabled writers, and writers from working-class backgrounds. Watch for its free editorial feedback and the Deptford Literature Festival.

The Poetry Society was founded in 1909 and has more than 5,000 members worldwide. It publishes The Poetry Review, runs the National Poetry Competition and has Stanza groups for members. Its home on Betterton Street hosts book launches and readings.

English PEN is a charity that champions the freedom to write and read, and its membership is open to writers, readers and activists. It campaigns for persecuted writers and offers respite residencies. Read its online magazine, PEN Transmissions.

Poets founded Apples and Snakes in 1982, and it calls itself the home for performance poetry in England. The charity develops performance poets and runs live events. Its Spoken Word Archive keeps more than forty years of poetry history.

The School of Advanced Study is the University of London's national hub for advanced research in the humanities and social sciences. It runs over 30 fellowship schemes for researchers at every career stage and welcomes around 140 visiting research fellows each year.

The British Academy funds humanities and social science research from its central London home. Early-career scholars can apply for Postdoctoral Fellowships, and it also offers Mid-Career, Senior Research and Innovation Fellowships.

UCL Press is University College London's open access university press. Its scholarly books, journals and student textbooks are free to read online.

Faber & Faber is an independent publishing house founded in 1929. Poetry is central to its list, which also includes fiction, non-fiction and drama.

Granta Books launched in 1989 and publishes around thirty new titles a year. Granta magazine has been a literary quarterly since 1979 and is owned by the Granta Trust, a charity set up in 2019 to promote new and emerging writing.

Verso describes itself as the largest independent, radical publishing house in the English-speaking world. It publishes about a hundred books a year.

This open access journal covers all fields of public health research, with a focus on the causes of disease, prevention, and community-based interventions. Its Field Chief Editor, Paolo Vineis, is at Imperial College London. Preparing an article for Frontiers in Public Health

BMJ Open publishes open access research of every study type across clinical medicine, public health and other fields. It is edited at BMJ Publishing Group in London, where Adrian Aldcroft is editor-in-chief. Preparing an article for BMJ Open

The Lancet Global Health is an open access journal on the health of disadvantaged populations, publishing original research, commentary, correspondence and Commissions. Its editor-in-chief, Zoë Mullan, works at The Lancet Group in London. Preparing an article for The Lancet Global Health

Health Policy and Planning publishes research and original ideas on the design, implementation and evaluation of health policies, with a focus on health systems in low- and middle-income countries. Its editors-in-chief, Lucy Gilson and Virginia Wiseman, are in the Department of Global Health and Development at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. Preparing an article for Health Policy and Planning

BMJ Global Health is an open access, peer-reviewed journal for research on all aspects of global health, and it also runs analysis, practice pieces, essays and commentary. BMJ Publishing Group edits it in London. Preparing an article for BMJ Global Health

Arts Council England's programme funds individual creative and cultural practitioners to spend time learning, experimenting and taking creative risks that develop their practice.

The London Writers Centre runs this development programme for unpublished, unagented writers who live in London and come from communities underrepresented in publishing. It covers literary fiction, commercial fiction, and YA and children's fiction.

These fellowships give professional writers paid work in more than 100 UK universities, helping students with their academic writing. The RLF also makes grants to professional writers in financial need.

English PEN gives these grants to publishers bringing new work from other languages into English.

This page lists scholarships, writing prizes, and writing resources at University College London.

Imperial students get the same kind of guide here.

King's College London's page covers grants and campus writing resources.

LSE students will find dissertation prizes and writing support on this one.

The London Centre for Book Arts has a bindery and a print and publishing studio, open to you with a Studio Pass. It also teaches workshops and runs a Making Books School. The entrance is opposite Bream Street.

The Document Centre has printed and bound since 1968. It offers same-day thesis and dissertation printing and binding, with turnarounds from two hours, along with traditional, perfect and leather binding. It is open weekdays only.

The Wyvern Bindery binds theses and handles repairs, presentation bindings, boxes and blocking. Students get a discount, and Royal Holloway includes the bindery on its list of doctoral binders.