At The City Lovers’ Bookshop

November 10, 2026

by the gentle author

Julia Harrison of the Silver Locket visited Mireille Galinou at the new City Lovers’ Bookshop which has just opened in Baker St Station.

Julia and Mireille will be in conversation discussing The Creative Future for Independent Bookselling at the Bloomsbury Jamboree this Sunday 15th November at 12:15pm at the Art Workers’ Guild, 6 Queen Sq, WC1N 3AT.

Julia Harrison (formerly of Waterstone’s and Daunt Books) and Mireille Galinou (of the City Lovers’ Bookshop) celebrate the creative new possibilities for independent bookselling, adapting and innovating to challenge the online marketplace by offering a radically different and more personal experience.

At this watershed moment for bookselling, they ask what it can provide and why it matters. Resisting the dominance of online retailing empowered by AI, Julia and Mireille explore the potential for building communities around the experience of reading and viable new kinds of bookshops, encouraging spaces for the exchange of ideas and enthusiasm inspired by book publishing.

Click here to book

Mireille Galinou

Sometimes life takes one in unexpected directions. On retiring from Daunt Books and missing my family of booksellers and local customers, meeting Mireille Gallinou felt like an unexpected gift. We were introduced by the Gentle Author who asked if I might consider joining the forthcoming Bloomsbury Jamboree with an ‘in conversation’ talk with Mireille about the creative possibilities for independent booksellers.

Mireille has worked with the subject of London since she was appointed as a Museum of London curatorial assistant in 1979. She became Curator of Paintings, Prints and Drawings in 1991, and more recently set up a small publishing house, Your London Publishing, specialising in books on London. She is passionate about cities and last week she achieved her dream of opening her City Lovers’ Bookshop, within Baker Street Station in London.

I first met Mireille a few weeks before the shop opened. On arriving on the walkway between the great staircases leading down to the Circle, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan lines, I saw what looked like a small cupboard: undaunted by the fact that the lock was at the top of the door, Mireille, who is tiny, silver-haired, and as I was to discover, determined, produced a small plastic set of steps from her back pack and proceeded to wrestle with the lock. When, eventually the door opened, a cornucopia of delight was revealed: white shelves, with books divided into London districts, including history, travel writing and fiction, together with what will be a changing display of books about a world city: the first one being Tokyo. Mireille’s friend Jiro Osuga, who also designed the signage for the shop, has contributed a set of paintings which speak to his experience of city living. This isn’t just a bookshop, it is an art installation too. It honestly felt like pushing my way through the coats in a wardrobe and finding myself in Narnia.

For Mireille, the learning curve, both in terms of working with London Transport, who has given her the space for a year, and the practicalities of setting up a bookshop, understanding suppliers, and dealing with the technology involved, is a steep one. When I returned last week, and tapped in through the gates, I could see Jiro’s artworks shining like a beacon. The whole space brings me joy: a place not just for quiet contemplation but for conversation too.

A few days’ ago I popped in to see Mireille before the shop opened to find out more about what inspired her to set up her City Lovers’ Bookshop:

‘I think it started with a search for the meaning of life, in a way. That made me think ‘what is it that is important to me now .. what is it that drives me’ and I came up with the city, that’s really when it started: looking for something that was meaningful.

I grew up in Casablanca. My parents emigrated to Morocco when I was one year old. There were no museums or galleries to go to. That was something I discovered much later when I was seventeen and returned to France. Even though I have always enjoyed nature, the city was where we lived. I got to know Western cities and for me London was a kind of case history: I was in a city that was big enough to do all sorts of different things. I went to university in France but it was in London that everything started. It was a kind of miracle really.

I didn’t know for a very long time how things would follow on from one another. Everyone talks about the Renaissance as mastering a sense of space but it is also during the Renaissance that the image of the city emerges in a significant way: a real city, drawn from life. That happens in the sixteenth century and became a real source of passion for me.

The idea of the city led me to set up a cultural club. It was called the London Arts Cafe. The idea was to get together with a group of people for a talk, for an exhibition, for a guided walk. There was always refreshment. I carried tea and cakes on my back. Food is a natural ingredient for bringing people together and to feeling good. The agenda was a cities agenda; creating exhibitions, including in the Baxter Gallery in Cowcross Street in Smithfield. I did it for ten years but I couldn’t do justice to the subject. I could think of no way of scaling it up.

I was a little anxious setting up this bookshop because of the experience of the London Arts Cafe and then my publishing company, It was the distribution of these books which made me think,’ is there a platform for that kind of book?’ and I came to the conclusion that no, there wasn’t one. When I go to the Carnavalet Museum which tells the story of Paris, there is a serious shop. I am always inspired when I go there. There isn’t an equivalent here.’

One of Mireille’s volunteers arrives to do some training, so we bring our conversation to a close:

‘I do everything on a shoestring: I am learning as I go along.’

Mireille has created something entirely new in the ‘City Lovers’ Bookshop’. When being in the city can feel stressful sometimes rather than pleasurable, I find Mireille’s celebration of city living inspiring. When I walk though the door of her bookshop my heart beats faster. She says that sometimes it can feel overwhelming. I am in awe of her achievement and salute her for her passion, her courage and her ability just to keep moving forwards.

Three cheers for the City Lovers’ Bookshop: a tiny jewel inside a busy station. Those who find time to stop and step inside are in for a wonderful surprise.