Watkins Books

What an incredible experience is visiting this bookshop in the heart of London. If you are into esoteric material, this is the place to visit. They not only sell books, they also sell crystals, Japamala beads, tarots, oracles, incense, and more. I do not live in London, and I can't wait to get back just to visit this shop that has a lot to offer as well as character. The staff is very friendly and helpful.

A very nice bookstore with a wide range of spiritual and belief topics. There is an extensive selection of tarot and oracle cards. There is also a good selection of jewelry. This is a great spot if you have an interest in a variety of belief and metaphysical topics.

I reached for the bookstore when it was about to close, but still got an amazing attention from the crew, they helped me to find the two books I was looking for and also found my Major Arcana Tarot by Leonora Carrington. They have a great variety of books, it’s worth to take a good look inside.

Very Mystical Shop Great for anyone who is a book worm or into esoteric things . More than a book shop , great staff very knowledgeable and very kind.

I visit this place often with my good friend who's a practicing witch and I absolutely love it! There's so much to choose from and the Tarot cards are pretty amazing! I even got one of my own today and it's Stranger Things themed (photo at the end) Overall I 100% recommend visiting this place!

My tarot reading with Nina was cancelled on my way to the shop and was told a Vedic astrologer called Sonal was available instead. I decided to go ahead with it since I was already on my way. The man on the phone told me Vedic was essentially the same as Western the appointment I originally booked. When I got there I was asked to pay before the reading. Never paid before a reading in my life but I did anyway (big mistake). I get to Sonal and realise the reading is in the shop window. Literally. She doesn’t greet me or say hello for the first 2 minutes just awkward silence. When she finally does greet me she asks me when my birthday is and I tell her it’s that day she didn’t say happy birthday to me I was already over it. Her energy was rude off and unbothered from the start. She’s then fiddling with a PC for the first half of the appointment which has a star grid on it? And can’t give me an accurate reading because I didn’t know the time I was born which I wasn’t told I needed to know. When it finally got to the tarot I ended the session and asked for a refund. She shouted across the shop that I wanted a refund and looked pissed off? Well I’m sorry love I just dragged myself to Soho for no reason after my appointment was cancelled and have to wait 3-5 business days for £45 to go back into my account I should be the one p’d off? I got up and said have a nice day and she ignored me and continued to fiddle with her PC. The girl at the till who made me pay in advance didn’t apologise for my bad experience. I hadn’t been to the shop before and still wanted to browse some books when I left they all stared at me like some weird cult. I don’t know if Sonal was racist? Or what her problem was. She was so unfriendly and the reading was so vague like she was making it up as she went along? Anyway I’m never going there for a reading again. I went to Treadwells in Goodge Street and had a much more positive experience and normal reading. Better book selection in my opinion too.

A beautiful bookshop clearly organized by section and subject. Vast selection of witchy and spiritual titles and tarot cards with a small shelf or fiction books downstairs.

It's been waaaaay too long since I've been back. Never wanna leave. If heaven were a bookstore, it would feel like this.

Staff are helpful yet not intrusive or pushy. Excellent selection of a broad variety of topics of books and tarot. Good selection of stones and if related collections as well. Fair prices!

Lovely spot for getting esoteric books. The folks who work there know their stuff well. Really friendly, warm crew. If you're know what you're looking for, they probably have it. If you don't, they will have someone there who can help you find something you want. They also have some great incenses. The copal resin sticks are my favorite and hard to get here. Nice gems and decks too. Wish they were open longer hours, and I hope one day they stick a cafe on to the building so people can coffee and magic together, but alas. For now, it's a place I like to visit as regularly as possible.

What a gorgeous store. Our Muggle Walking Tour guide pointed this place out as an esoteric bookstore that JK Rowling favours along the street that was the inspiration for Diagon Alley. I felt right at home at this quaint little spot, and the shopkeeper was very nice. They have a wide selection of books covering everything from spirituality to tarot reading. The reusable tote bags are only £2! It has a gorgeous design with Watkins Books along the bottom in Slytherin green. Perfect for a Slytherin like me trying to find a nice souvenir for my best friend who's also a Harry Potter fan. I could spend hours in here. It's worth checking out.

Very friendly and helpful staff who really knows the spiritually genre of books. Excellent selection too!

All my esoteric books have been bought here. Gossip has it that Scientology have bought the place since it was about to close down recently. Whatever, thank god its been saved!

This is by far the BEST spiritual/occult bookshop in the world. If you are a crazy bibliophile like moi, you owe it to yourself to get yourself to London, then get yourself to Cecil Court, an entire alley of rare booksellers and head over to Watkins Books, if you love all things spiritual, mystical and occult. It's no secret that J.K Rowling of Harry Potter fame based Diagon Alley on Cecil Court but not as well-known is that she too is a fan of Watkins Books. Yes, you'll find the usual New Age clap-trap, Law of Attraction, astrology, crystals, tarot books and paraphernalia, particularly on the ground floor. But head downstairs and that's where the real serious stuff is. When I mentioned little-known obscure mystical and spiritual writers like Martinus of Denmark, Mikhael Aivanhov on Bulgaria, Daskalos of Cyprus and Torkom Saradarian, no joke they had it all in their computer database and even a few titles on the shelves. While I took my pile of books to a table and sat myself down to look them over and decide which ones I was going to purchase, I could not help but hear the kinds of questions and queries, customers were giving to the sales associate behind the desk. People here know their stuff and it was fairly obvious that even the kinds of titles they were mentioning and the writers they were asking for showed a clientele of substantial spiritual maturity and insight. This will never happen in Quebec at least not for another 300 years. Please dear Londoners, do not ever let this shop go. A place like this needs to exist for seekers everywhere.

Massive panic recently as Watkins went into administration, but glad tidings have come in the fact that the gentleman who owns the bookshop across the way is buying the place and rescuing this very important shop from liquidation. The staff are lovely here and there is a wonderful selection of Tarot cards CDs for meditation and trance work, and a lot of occult and new age books. The second hand and value books are helpfully marked with an orange sticker, and the areas of the bookshop clearly labelled. I hope that Watkins carries on going strong for another 200 years.

This bookshop is great, I have found many books that have been out of print here. This bookshop as everyone has stated has all books to do with occult, spiritualism, self help etc you literally can spend hours in here wondering what books to get, luckily they do have people on hand to help out :) I have met many people in this bookshop while browsing. They have a sale area that is quite good and a psychic you can book a session with. You can also pick up leaflets of things that are happening in the area, lectures and classes. It's a shame they don't have more seating areas, but Starbucks is around the corner, buy a book and head to Starbucks and get yourself a Vanilla Latte

As Clarissa D hinted in a previous review Watkins is an esoteric book temple, nay a Mecca. This two floor store is superbly set-up to keep anyone with a remote or keen interest in the occult, spiritualism or anything linked to magick in here, in bibliophilic rapture for hours. There are always plenty of attendants on hand to help you search for titles, and if you really fancy it, there is a psychic on site who you can book a session with. Beyond just what's in-store Watkins can point you in the direction of esoteric groups and workshops. Simply put, if you want any books or information surrounding esoteric beliefs, there are two places you must go, Treadwells and Watkins Books.

Watkins is an esoteric book temple. They carry new and used books on all types of spiritual subjects, from Buddhism, Wicca, astrology to I-Ching and much more. Tarot cards, candles and other spiritual artifacts are also for sale here. Whenever I need a little divine inspiration I go into this shop to peruse the selection. Most of the time I am tempted to lie facedown on the floor and start meditating, but although this place is a tolerance sanctuary, for some reason I don't think that kind of behaviour would be acceptable. If you're into tarot card readings or psychics, professionals come here to give readings for a fee a few days a week. You don't have to book an appointment to come to the shop, but you definitely have to book an appointment to get your palm read.

19, Cecil Court This is another of London's institutions. You can buy books about all the spiritual masters here, books on mysticism, occult and alternative health. But the overall emphasis is on spitituality, particularly that of the East. A few days years ago, they took on another shop next door which sells spiritual ephemera, so staues and prayer beads, cd's and crystals and divnation cards. It is also possible to have readings done here. There is a swami who sits in teh window here and gives readings and he's very good. There are others here as well. This has been here for a hundred years and is quite likley to be the oldest bookshop of its sort. You get the feeling that Madame Blavatsky might have been here, but then again I'm not sure how long ago that would have been. They have a website with the history of it described http://www.watkinsbooks . com They sell second hand and antiquarian books

Following my visit to Treadwell's, I came here to complete my book shop. It follows a very similar theme, as mentioned previously by Clarissa D. Esoteric books are their forte, and they do it well. When I was there, I saw some 7 or 8 store staff, and a psychic of some measure (I didn't observe what the activity was, as it was behind a curtain, and I didn't wish to pry nor look out for a sign to say what it was). All quite helpful and friendly, albeit engaged in deep conversation with eachother. A trend for these kinds of stores, from what I've seen - be it with a colleague or customer, conversations flow freely and are nigh on expected, even. It's not somewhere you really go to ask a load of questions about where to find a book - you browse for that which feels suited to your needs. So whilst I felt a little guilty when I interrupted to check for a book they didn't have, and again for directions to a tube station (I was a little lost again. Let's not talk about my attempts to even -find- this place), I still felt included and welcomed. Spanning over 2 floors, the shop floor itself is spacious enough that you don't feel too cramped around others, although it is still an inevitability in the corners, of which there are quite a few. However, everyone there was friendly. Idle chatter, banter and moving around for eachother was to be observed and partaken in. Once again, I was able to find some of the books I wanted, and whilst it came to a bit more than at Treadwell's, the prices were still quite reasonable, if not cheaper than the RRP. Whilst I didn't feel quite homely enough to sit and read covers for a further hour, possible induced by my needing to be somewhere before too long, and not wanting to clog up the corner space for the other people near me, I could see myself one day spending a fair bit of time here. I think a combination of Watkins and Treadwell's could quite easily formulate into the perfect esoteric haven for all, quite frankly. They both do what they do well, and lack a mark where the other one had it.

This was a great bookstore. When it comes to books in general I usually go to used bookstores. When it comes to occult & metaphysics I will make an exception to this rule, but if the occult bookstore carries both new and used, then that is a big plus to my way of thinking. Watkins is a great store and if I ever get the chance, I will be back.

Wow, I nearly went into bookshop shock when I walked into this store. If esoterica is your thing, this shop needs to be at the top of your list of must-see-and-go-shopping places. In my experience, the selections across multiple topics and disciples was unparalleled.

Really friendly, helpful staff and a great stock of esoteric books covering a range of subjects. They also have a huge selection of cheaper second hand books, and a selection of non-book products as well.

The best New Age, Metaphysical, Theosophical bookshop in London. A real alladins cave of knowledge.

I love this bookshop! They have all sorts of interesting books, and also gemstones, interesting jewelry, essential oils and small figurines from India.