Tabletop Game Shop in Covent Garden: Orcs Nest Since 1987

Orcs Nest is a tabletop game shop at 6 Earlham Street, London WC2H 9RY, and it has been trading from the same corner of Covent Garden since April 1987. It opens Monday to Saturday from 11 am to 6 pm. The shopfront is painted black with a carved orc's face hanging outside, so you cannot miss it on the short walk from Shaftesbury Avenue.

The Orcs Nest website describes the business as the online version of Central London's only dedicated specialist games shop, and the claim is plausible once you step inside. The small black-painted room is packed with board games, pen and paper role-playing books, miniatures, card games and accessories. It opened in April 1987, and the website says so on its shop page.

The shop's own directions start at Leicester Square station. Take the Charing Cross Road East exit and turn right along Charing Cross Road until you reach Shaftesbury Avenue, where the red brick Palace Theatre stands with a statue holding a flame on its roof. Turn right there and Earlham Street runs off ahead of you, with Orcs Nest at the end of it.

The whole walk takes a few minutes, which makes the shop an easy stop between a Covent Garden lunch and a West End show. Because Earlham Street feeds into Seven Dials, you can also arrive from the other end and let the sundial pillar guide you down the lane. Either way, look for the orc's face rather than a shop sign.

The Real Shop page on orcsnest.com lists the hours as follows: Monday 11 am to 6 pm, Tuesday 11 am to 6 pm, Wednesday 11 am to 6 pm, Thursday 11 am to 6 pm, Friday 11 am to 6 pm and Saturday 11 am to 6 pm. The page lists no Sunday opening, so plan a weekday or Saturday visit rather than a Sunday afternoon drop-in.

The shop is open the same seven hours each day, which keeps planning simple. If you are after a specific new release, the site suggests emailing or phoning first to check availability, since the online catalogue is not a live picture of what is on the shelves. The shop does not accept orders by telephone because of credit card regulations, so a call is only for stock questions.

The homepage lists new releases with prices in pounds sterling. Clank! A Deck-Building Adventure: Master Thief Edition is listed at £49.99, the cooperative band-forming card game Melodies at £21.99 and The Dastardly Deck, a 100-card pack of tips for running role-playing games, at £18.00. Those three show the range, from a big-box adventure game to a small stocking filler.

The catalogue is organised by system, publisher, role-playing, historical, collectible card games, magazines, miniatures and accessories. That breadth is the reason to come in person instead of ordering online: the shop stocks Fantasy Flight, Chaosium, Osprey, Rio Grande and Z-Man titles alongside smaller publishers, and the staff can point you from a game you loved to one you have not met.

One honest judgment: skip the magazine rack unless you need the latest issue of Tabletop Gaming, listed at £6.99, and spend your time at the shelves of board games instead. Prices on the site are the same ones you pay at the till, because the shop says every listed item is for sale on its shelves.

The site promises that the shop might not be the biggest in the world but is one of the coolest, and it advertises a light fitting shaped like a giant twenty-sided die, which it calls the Damoclesian D20 of Death. That kind of in-joke is what keeps regulars coming back. It is the opposite of a polished chain store, and the stock reflects people who play the games they sell.

Role-players tend to head for the shelves of sourcebooks, such as the Arkham Horror roleplaying sourcebook Songs of New Orleans, listed at £49.99. Board gamers drift toward the Euro and cooperative titles. If you are buying for someone else, tell the staff the player count and how long the group likes to sit at the table, and let them choose.

Orcs Nest is a place to buy, not a place to sit and play. It lists local gaming clubs on a Clubs page so that shoppers can find a group, including a role-playing club that meets on Wednesday evenings from 7 pm at The Plough on Museum Street in Bloomsbury and a Wandsworth boardgaming group that meets on weekday evenings.

If you want tables, scenery and a calendar of tournaments, Dark Sphere in Shepherd's Bush is the better match, and Rogues Quarter in Kentish Town combines a board game library with a bar. Treat Orcs Nest as the shop where you pick the game, then take it to one of those rooms or to a friend's table.

With a bag in hand, walk the few steps to Seven Dials, where seven streets meet around a pillar, and then continue toward the Covent Garden Piazza. The Palace Theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue is the landmark the shop itself uses for directions, so it makes a natural turning point for a loop that ends back at Leicester Square.

If the shop is closed when you arrive, the website is the fallback: it sells by mail order, accepts card and PayPal payments, and dispatches overseas orders by airmail. UK orders go by Royal Mail, with courier delivery for larger boxes, so a missed visit does not have to mean a missed game.

Address: Orcs Nest, 6 Earlham Street, London WC2H 9RY. Hours: Monday to Saturday, 11 am to 6 pm, with no Sunday opening listed. Nearest station: Leicester Square, Charing Cross Road East exit. Payment online is by card or PayPal, and all prices are in pounds sterling. The shop opened in April 1987.

Bring a rough idea of player count and budget, ask before you go if you want a specific new release, and use the Karpo APP to line up the rest of your Covent Garden afternoon. This is a quick, friendly stop that rewards curiosity more than a fixed shopping list.