Used Bookstore Near Me in Bloomsbury: Judd Books' Basement of Bargain Scholarship

Judd Books keeps more than 50,000 new and used titles in the arts and social sciences on two floors at 82 Marchmont Street, London WC1N 1AG, and it is open 11am to 7pm Monday to Saturday and 12pm to 6pm on Sunday. Students with a valid ID get 10% off everything at the till. If a used bookstore near me search drops you in Bloomsbury, this is where remaindered American university press titles share shelf space with second-hand philosophy, and where British history fills an entire basement wall.

Russell Square, on the Piccadilly line between Holborn and King's Cross St Pancras, is the nearest Tube, and the shop's own directions place it midway between that station and the British Library on Euston Road. The station is on Bernard Street and has no escalators: you take one of three 50-passenger lifts or climb a spiral staircase of 176 steps. From the exit it is a short walk north on to Marchmont Street.

Marchmont Street was built in the first decade of the 19th century, and most of its western side is Grade II listed, as is the Brunswick Centre that forms most of the eastern side. Small independent shops fill the northern half of the street. Drivers can park on the street after 1.30pm on Saturday and all day Sunday, according to the shop, but the area sits inside the Congestion Charge zone.

The name is a clue to the history. Judd Books was founded in 1992 by Nigel Kemp and Alexander Donaldson in premises on Judd Street, which gave the shop its name. It later opened a second shop on Marchmont Street and ran both for a time, until the Judd Street branch closed and Marchmont became the only address. The trading company behind the sign is Leaflet Books Ltd, registered in England, and the shop describes itself as trading for over 25 years.

Praise has followed it for years. The Guardian listed it among London's finest bookshops in 2008, and the homepage still quotes the writer Ed Glinert, from his book Literary London, calling it Bloomsbury's best bookshop, well stocked on London, local history, architecture and travel, with many bargains. Judd Books is also listed as a member of the Provincial Booksellers Fairs Association.

The ground floor is the arts floor: literature, art, design, architecture, film, media, music and theatre studies, along with other arts sections. Time Out's James Manning describes tables in the main room stacked with remaindered art and photography books, exhibition catalogues and popular fiction both recent and classic, heavily marked down. He writes that he has picked up books there at an 80 percent discount, and the rest of the room is second-hand.

Downstairs is considerably larger. History is arranged by country, with British history taking a whole wall, followed by classical studies, economics, philosophy, science and psychology. A back room holds sociology, international relations and politics, including a dedicated shelf run on socialism and Marxism. Reviewers on Wanderlog describe the basement as feeling properly underground but well lit and well ventilated, which matters when you plan to spend an hour down there with a stack of hardbacks.

What sets the stock apart is its academic depth. The shop says it specialises in academic books, many of them remaindered titles from American university presses, and that new stock arrives regularly with shelves replenished daily. Travel writer Candace Abroad singles out the poetry selection and the plush chairs where you can read for a while before getting back on the Tube, while The Nudge calls the selection of academic books unrivalled in the area.

Judd publishes its own discount rules. A loyalty card earns one stamp for every £10 spent in a single transaction, so a £25 purchase earns two stamps, and eight stamps take £10 off your next purchase. You have to show the card when you pay, because stamps cannot be added later. The 10% student discount needs a valid student ID at the sales desk; library cards and halls of residence passes are not accepted.

There is a second shop online. About 10,000 books are listed on AbeBooks, and the shop warns that most of those are not on the shelves in Marchmont Street, so a title you find online may be in storage rather than on display. It also sells on Amazon and Biblio and posts first class within the UK. Its Bookshop.org storefront sends 30% of each sale to Judd, but the shop does not carry that stock.

Location shapes the crowd. The shop sits among the University of London campuses, which explains the student discount, and Wanderlog's summary calls it a good place to hunt for specific course materials across the humanities. Academics and researchers are the other half of the story: they are the people Judd buys whole collections from. Then come the art-book bargain hunters, such as Time Out's James Manning, raiding the marked-down catalogue tables upstairs.

One honest skip: do not arrive with a bag of books to sell. Judd does not buy from the public over the counter, and it asks people not to leave donations on the pavement. It wants academic collections of 50 books or more, photographed on their shelves and emailed in first, and collects within Greater London. It turns down sociology, business, law, science, textbooks, annotated copies, antiquarian books and second-hand bestsellers, and says it is especially low on classic literature.

Pick your day with care. Sunday hours are shorter, 12pm to 6pm, and the shop closes on bank holiday Sundays and Mondays. Wanderlog's tips suggest weekdays for quieter browsing, which suits anyone planning a long session in the basement. Rare-book collectors hunting first editions should temper expectations, since the stock leans to academic remainders and clean second-hand copies, and the buying policy excludes antiquarian books outright.

Your plan B is on the same street. Gay's the Word, also on Marchmont Street, opened in January 1979 and calls itself the UK's oldest LGBT+ bookshop. Beyond new titles it keeps a Rare and Used Books section, and it hosted an author event in April 2026 in its recently refurbished shop. It opens 11am to 6pm Tuesday to Saturday and 1pm to 6pm on Sunday, and closes on Mondays, so time any combined visit around that.

The Brunswick Centre, which makes up most of the street's eastern side, is a Grade II listed residential and shopping complex designed by Patrick Hodgkinson and built between 1967 and 1972, with tiered concrete flats and a Curzon cinema inside. Look out too for the blue plaque marking where the actor Kenneth Williams lived on Marchmont Street. Judd's own page also points visitors to The Place dance theatre, the Foundling Museum, the Dickens Museum and the Wellcome Collection nearby.

Judd Books, 82 Marchmont Street, London WC1N 1AG. Open 11am to 7pm Monday to Saturday and 12pm to 6pm on Sunday, closed bank holiday Sundays and Mondays. Nearest Tube: Russell Square, Piccadilly line. Loyalty card: one stamp per £10 spent, eight stamps for £10 off. 10% student discount with valid ID. The shop buys academic collections of 50 books or more by email only.