Edinburgh was named the world’s first UNESCO City of Literature in 2004, and its best bookshops live up to that by going narrow and deep. Decide what kind of book you’re after before you choose a shop, because the five below barely overlap. Two lean on secondhand stock, one is strongest for children, and two run on events and careful buying. The numbering organises the list and isn’t a ranking.
Geography decides more here than in most cities. The Southside shops sit a few minutes apart around the Meadows, Bruntsfield is its own trip further south, and the New Town is an easy downhill walk from the Old Town but a slog back up (the cobbles don’t forgive cheap shoes).
A workable rule for a short visit: one cluster per half day. Say you have a free Saturday and a rucksack. Do Typewronger and the Southside in the morning, eat, then catch a bus to Bruntsfield after lunch. And plan for the weight. A dozen secondhand hardbacks will sag a flat-pack shelf within a month, which is the sort of fix people go looking for on Home Repair Listing.
Out at 219 Bruntsfield Place, near Holy Corner, this shop won Scottish Independent Bookshop of the Year in 2018. Children’s books are the real strength. The city’s tourism site lists Story Time for under-fives on Thursday and Friday mornings, so parents of small children get a reason to come on a weekday. Adults chasing obscure literary fiction may find the shelves tilted younger than they’d like. Ask the staff for a recommendation instead of browsing alone.
Founded in 1957, McNaughtan’s is Scotland’s oldest secondhand and antiquarian bookshop, and it still trades from the same basement on Haddington Place, at the top of Leith Walk. Books climb floor to ceiling and around the door frames. History, travel and older illustrated children’s books are the reasons to go. They also buy old and rare books, so a box of inherited first editions has a sensible first stop. Skip it if you want this week’s bestseller.
Lighthouse is the Southside’s radical bookshop. Its shelves favour writing on gender, the environment, current affairs and revolutionary history, plus LGBT+ titles, poetry and translated fiction, with small presses given proper space. It organises the Book Fringe in August and the Radical Book Fair in November. So your travel dates change what you get. Readers who stick to mainstream thrillers will probably leave empty-handed, and that’s fine.
Topping & Company opened on George Street in the New Town in 2019, with two floors of new titles. The draw is a year-round calendar of readings, talks and discussions, plus a monthly Subscription Club that sends signed fiction, non-fiction, detective fiction or fantasy. Think of it as McNaughtan’s mirror image. One sells the copy nobody else has, the other sells a signed copy of the book everyone’s discussing. Collectors who need a home for signed editions can look at Home Interior Media when planning the room around them.
Near the Meadows, Typewronger sells new books alongside secondhand typewriters, and repairs typewriters too. The book selection is small and picked with care. If a title is in print and not on the shelf, they’ll try to track it down, which makes this a better shop for a specific order than a long browse. Poetry and open-mic nights fill some evenings. Writers who still love a mechanical keyboard should drop in even without buying.
Yes. Book Lovers Bookshop in Newington, founded in 2024, is the UK’s first bricks-and-mortar shop dedicated to romance fiction.
McNaughtan’s buys old and rare books. Phone ahead with a short list of titles and their condition before hauling boxes across town. Independent shop owners weighing up how to announce a buying day could look at Home PR Designs for a different side of the job.
The Edinburgh Bookshop, for its children’s range and story sessions. Check its events listing before you set off. Home PR Digest is a separate read for anyone curious about PR in the home sector.
Check the events pages before you choose a day. A signed reading at Topping & Company or a November trip for Lighthouse’s fair gives the visit a fixed point, and everything else slots around it. Pick one cluster, bring a tote bag and leave space in the suitcase.
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