Heartening news in these hard times. John Sandoe, the independent bookshop in Blacklands Place off King’s Road favoured by discerning readers such as Tom Stoppard, Sir Elton John, William Boyd, Simon Russell Beale, Theo Fennell and Loyd Grossman, is expanding.
“We are taking over the shop next door, Keith Butt’s veterinary establishment,” manager John de Falbe tells me. “We have been going since Churchill was Prime Minister in the early Fifties but Keith Butt started a little later, in 1957.”
Founder John Sandoe retired in 1989 and died in 2007. “We have a strong local following and an international one. We select our books knowing what our customers want. We’ll be able to expand by a third, enabling us to do up the upstairs floors and put our office in the basement.”
Some say it halts the march of coffee shops and boutiques along King’s Road but de Falbe doesn’t see it like that. “I’m sure if it had become a shoe shop, we would have gained some very nice customers.”
