Stanfords’ flagship store is located in the heart of London’s Covent Garden on Long Acre – two minutes' walk from both Covent Garden and Leicester Square Underground stations.
It first opened its doors to the public in 1901 and the Covent Garden branch continues to stock our complete range of maps and books over its three floors.
The basement is home to the London Stanfords Digital office where you can order personalised maps and aerial photographs; and the British department – which includes the full range of Ordnance Survey maps. The floor is covered in what must be one of the largest A-Z maps of central London.
Also in our basement you can find a new Craghoppers outlet with their specially designed outdoor clothing and accessories and Bear Grylls range of clothes.
The ground floor stocks maps and books for France, Spain, Italy and Portugal as well as our vast selection of globes, travel literature, children’s travel books and games, and world music and film. Other great travel accessories and gift ideas are displayed here too.
Customers can go around the world in eight minutes as they negotiate the vast National Geographic world map on the floor before reaching the café space at the rear of the store, also with an entrance from Floral Street.
Books and maps for all other European and international destinations are found on the first floor, together with useful travelling accessories such as first aid packs, torches and pocket knives. Up here the floor is covered in National Geographic’s famous map of the Himalayas, centred on Mount Everest. Look upwards to the ceiling above the stairwell to see a map of the solar system.
Next to domestically sourced maps we strive to stock the best available mapping from abroad. Stock is organised by country and includes regional maps, walking maps and street atlases.
The store often hosts author lectures and special events and our marketing team is always organising useful offers on our stock, so subscribe to our newsletter or keep an eye on the events and offers pages for the latest.
- Find out more about the fascinating History of Stanfords.
Craghoppers
Find the new Craghoppers outdoor clothing shop in the lower ground floor of our London store. Craghoppers has been making clothes specifically designed for the outdoors since 1965, developing fabrics designed for any temperature and conditions. From tops and trousers to jackets and accessories, for hiking, scrambling or exploring, Craghoppers is renowned for their high-quality travel gear. The company was recently awarded the 2009 Bronze Wanderlust Award for 'Best Travel Gear'. Craghoppers has also teamed up with adventurer Bear Grylls in producing a range of clothes based on the design of his very own gear that he uses in extreme conditions.
So what could be better than picking up your maps, guidebooks and clothing ready for your next trip, all in one go?!
Craghoppers is open during the same hours as the store (see above right-hand-side column).
Café
Stanfords is excited to announce the opening of a new café at our Covent Garden store - Sacred Café is a New Zealand-style café offering herbal/ayurvedic loose-leaf teas, New Zealand organic fairtrade coffee roast, and hearty, well-made food with quintessentially Kiwi menu items such as savoury muffins and Lolly Cake!
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, www.accessinlondon.org.