The famously quirky Osterley Bookshop is closing down

West London’s much-loved curio, a bookshop in an old tube station, will be closing as a bookshop, the owners have announced, although they will remain in the building.

Osterley Bookshop (c) ianVisits

The bookshop is based inside the ticket office of the original Osterley & Spring Grove tube station, which opened in 1883 but closed as a tube station in 1934 when a replacement Osterley station opened on the main road.

The old station building was used as a shop by a succession of owners until 1967, when two artists moved in. They initially aimed to just live there, but the council insisted the shop’s function had to remain. So they bought a load of second-hand books to sell and have never really looked back since.

The very old-fashioned bookshop, and much loved for that, filling every spare gap with piles upon piles of second-hand books, knick-knacks and any oddities that take the owner’s fancy.

It’s also a place where they sell their commercial art.

Sadly, as they explain, book sales haven’t kept up with running costs, and over the past year, it’s been their commercial art sales that have kept the bookshop alive. They’ve now accepted that the art sales, which were their original passion, will take priority over the bookshop, which they admit isn’t as much fun anymore.

They won’t leave the building, so the Osterly Bookshop will likely become more like an Osterley Gallery. Maybe.

The bookshop is open Wednesday to Sunday from 9:30am to 5:30pm, and they’re starting the book sell off now. You have time to visit though as they expect to take a very long time to clear out their entire stock.

The Osterley Bookshop is on Thornbury Road, about a 10-minute walk from Osterley tube station on the Piccadilly line.

Osterley Bookshop (c) ianVisits