Stanfords, the world’s leading map and travel bookseller, is looking forward to the highlight of our 150th anniversary year: the November re-launch of our flagship store in Long Acre, Covent Garden, at the end of our £1 million-pound refurbishment programme.
Already the world’s largest specialist map and travel bookshop, our refurbished store will be 50% larger than before, allowing Stanfords to offer an expanded range of both maps and books, which will be merchandised together by region for extra convenience. Large graphic displays will guide you to each area, and other original features include lectern browsers with map index information.
Starting in September 2002, exterior building work has been undertaken in parallel with the interior refurbishment and our store has remained open throughout.
Among dramatic design features, you will notice:
• A new steel and hardwood open feature staircase connecting all three floors, as well as a new customer lift.
• The world at your feet: each storey will feature a 54 sq-m map embedded into the floor. You will be greeted by a Map of the World when you enter the front doors on the ground floor, the basement will display the A-Z of Greater London, and an ascent to the new first floor will earn you a walk across Everest and the Himalayas.
• The skies above: a map of the black night sky with its stars is displayed on the ceiling of the top floor, visible from each level through the central stairwell.
The exterior and fabric of the building has also been completely refurbished, including restoring the distinctive pointed gable at the top, damaged by an incendiary bomb in 1941 which destroyed the third and fourth floors. Although essential repairs were carried out after World War II, the building has never been fully restored until now.
During the works, an exciting historical relic was uncovered: a stock-take sheet from 1879 that was left stuck to a wall that was covered up. Edward Stanford had moved his printing works here in 1873 and the shop opened in the building in 1901.
Date: 4 November 2003
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