London Store

Opening Hours:

• Monday ------- 9.00 - 20.00
• Tuesday ------ 9.30 - 20.00
• Wednesday -- 9.00 - 20.00
• Thursday ----- 9.00 - 20.00
• Friday ---------- 9.00 - 20.00

• Saturday -------- 10.00 - 20.00
• Sunday ---------- 12.00 - 18.00
• Bank Holidays -- 12.00 - 18.00

Stanfords Tourist Information:

Stanfords’ flagship store is located in the heart of London’s Covent Garden on Long Acre – just two minutes' walk from either Covent Garden or Leicester Square Underground stations.

The shop first opened its doors in 1901 and continues to evolve with developments in the travelling world, and is considered the biggest travel bookshop in the world, with the greatest range of maps, books, travel accessories and globes under one roof.

Subscribe to our newsletter and keep an eye on the events and offers pages for the latest happenings in our store.
Find out more about the fascinating History of Stanfords.

In Store Experts:

This month meet THE ADVENTURE COMPANY

The Adventure Company is an independently minded, expert adventure travel company. We’ve been around for more than 15 years and we’re passionate about bringing you the best and most authentic travel experiences. Our trips open your eyes to different ways of life and provide lasting memories - all without the hassle of organising anything yourself. We offer 160 trips to 55 countries worldwide, with a range that includes multi- activities, safaris, walking and trekking, or discovery trips to the most iconic places. We even have a dedicated range of holidays just for Families with a spirit of adventure!


During the month of May our travel experts will be on hand in Stanford's Covent Garden Store to give you advice and offer firsthand knowledge on the destinations we travel to. So if you have any questions or just fancy a chat why not pop by. We’ll be around Tuesday to Saturday from 12pm to 6.15pm and we will also be running a series of evening talks every Thursday.

Coming Soon:

The Switzerland Travel Centre are coming soon to Stanfords Covent Garden. Specialising in holidays to Switzerland, their experts will be on hand in our themed area for the month of June to answer any questions you may have about planning a trip to Switzerland.

Shop access information

+1 step from Long Acre, but step-free at the back from Floral Street. The shop is accessible with a lift (D75 W85 L125) to all floors. If boxes of books are temporarily in your way, as is occasionally inevitable, the staff will be quick to move them. Adapted toilet in the staff area on the first floor (outer door D68; toilet D80 ST70) available on request.
Nearest accessible Underground station is Westminster.

(Dimensions are given in centimetres).
This information is from Access in London , available from Stanfords, http://www.accessinlondon.org

Did you know..?

The famous map floors in Stanfords' London store were originally produced for us by Marley Tiles when we completed our 2003 refit. Our ground floor is covered with the National Geographic map of the world, the first floor with the NG map of the Himalayas, centred on Everest, and the basement with a giant A-Z map of central London.

Each map floor cost approximately £15,000, and the map data we used was kindly provided by National Geographic and Geographers A-Z. Marley’s photographic print flooring department no longer exists, and in fact, our floors were the last piece of work they completed.