Daunt Books

We visited this store seven days ago and it’s not too far from the Hampstead Heath store. It’s small & cozy — and in particular, it has a nice selection of illustrated children’s books.

I really miss living in Hampstead because of this book shop. I know I can visit, but it’s really not the same as having it 5 minutes walk down the street! Small but crammed full of books, Daunt always seem to stray a little off the ‘commercial’ side of popular books and have great selections chosen by the staff of old (new) options to buy. I always loved that I could pop in here and find books I didn’t realise were around rather than having the same thing shoved in my face day in day out by other chain bookshops. They are great with recommendations, the staff are friendly and helpful and more than happy to try and track down any book they don’t have in stock for you too. if you have kids, there’s a brilliant (and large) book section in the back of the shop and a cute little area you can sit down with them to make a choice.

Very helpful assistants and great choice of books!

Quaint neighborhood bookstore. Fun to browse at.

Daunt Books always seem to have a book title that I’m always looking for.
I often go for film books published by Wallflower.

cute neighborhood book shop. small but serviceable. would benefit from maybe a few benches to encourage better browsing experience. esp near the cookbook area. i need to flip through those types of books thoroughly before settling on one to purchase.

Lovely bookstore with a well curated selection of books on tables to attract your attention. I saw way too many books that I would love to buy and managed to escape with only one under my arm. If I had unlimited money I’d be in here every day!

With tickets finally booked for the trip to far off lands I was keen to pick up a guide book to salivate over as I feel asleep of anight in the run up to our departure. En route to Sunday Lunch on the edge of the Heath Belsize Park was the nearest tube station. Up we popped from the Underground and there, across the road was Daunt Books. I’ve noticed a number of people over the last few months in North London sporting a Daunt books cloth bag with pride. This place is getting something of a following– and justified it is too. Glance in the door and you’d be forgiven for thinking this particular store is dedicated to travel writing– I have a faint memory that one of the original stores, if not the original store in Marylebone was dedicated to travel books– but don’t quote me. The books are all devided into sections– Europe, Africa– Asia, Palestine, Isreal– you get the idea. Within these sections not only do you find bog standars Rough Guide travel books but literature based in these parts of the world, journals, reports– all you could wish to find under the litle of literature. And don’t think that they don’t also carry copies of some great kids books, and cookery books– they do. A delight of a book shop– really. Shame the staff when we were there on Sunday was missing a sense of humour.

Quite a specialist store. This branch of Daunt Books has a very good travel section that covers every continent. The children section is the second largest proportion of offerings. As Benedict stated this is not the store for perusing shelf after shelf of popular cultures best sellers.
If you are in the area and looking for something to read on the fringes of the social sphere, Hampstead Daunt Books may be able to help. If you have the time my suggestion would be to head to the bigger Marylebone Daunt store. That is a truly exceptional book store.

Quite a small outlet in the growing Daunt chain, but good for all that. A small bookshop with a cosy atmosphere and carefully chosen range. No soap star biographies. Large children’s section. A good place to browse.

Don’t get me wrong, Daunt Books is as wonderful, original and cultured as a bookstore can be, but the service in Belsize Park left me a bitter taste in my mouth. The area might be gentrified, with lots of suit-​wearing professionals running up and down, but that’s no reason why a suit-​less, young-​looking foreign girl should be treated differently than the majority of customers who might walk in to buy a book or two. One thing I learned through my experiences till this day is that one should never judge someone by his/​her appearance –in this case culture needn’t wear a certain dresscode.
Yet, my love for books and bookstores was stronger than my sense of pride and I was swalloded by the range and variety of authors and books from all parts of the world. Though I entered with the pledge of not spending money this time I ended up leaving with two wonderful books –one French phrasebook and a new novel by the magnificent Paulo Coelho, The witch of Portobello.

Daunt Books is a great place to spend a half hour (or more) pottering around perusing titles. The branch on Haverstock Hill is conveniently located for a visit en route back from a Sunday morning walk on the Heath. Books are arranged in an unusual but engaging fashion — by world area: under Middle East for example there is an wide-​ranging selection of Arab, Hebrew, Turkish and Persian novels in translation, travel guides, histories, biographies and cookbooks. There are other sections for Latin America, North America, the Far East and so on, as well as a sizable children’s section at the back. Don’t expect to walk out without buying a handful of titles.