This is now my nearest Waterstone's, after the Earl's Court branch upped and went and became an M&S Simply Food store (which is quite nice too, but we've already got lots of supermarkets, and now no book-shop).

Pundits have been talking about the death of traditional bookshops for many years now, what with the rise of Amazon and the like. But that misses the point for me: Amazon is fine for ordering books to send to other people, but I enjoy browsing in bookshops, and a fair proportion of my purchases are impulse buys, having flicked through the book first. And you can't do that - yet - on-line. Bookshops are actually quite dangerous places for me - one of the few places I am vulnerable to temptation!

This branch is medium-sized and is on two levels, with a reasonable choice of both fiction and non-fiction, as well as a small selection of cards, calendars, etc. I've bought a lot of books and maps from here in recent years and, while the selection of maps can't begin to match the National Map Centre in Victoria or Stanford's, the selection here is still pretty good.

The staff are knowledgeable and helpful, in my experience, and I have had books ordered through here without any fuss. (And of course, unlike Amazon, you don't have to pay for postage). An additional bonus here is that the shop is open until 20h every week-day evening.