Watkins Esoteric bookshop, Cecil Court

lostinrates

D told me this is in administratrion now.

debts of £500k. Been there over a hundred years.

Made me giggle a little; with all those forecesting resources and guides....and they didn't see it coming.

Davesnave

Here's a list of subjects covered:

BOOKS

• AFRICAN SPIRITUALITY
• ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE
• ANCIENT BRITAIN
• ANCIENT CIVILISATIONS
• ANGELS & FAERIES
• ASTROLOGY
• BODYWORK
• BUDDHISM
• CHRISTIAN SPIRITUALITY
• CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY
• CONSCIOUSNESS
• CONSPIRACY THEORY
• CREATIVITY
• DIVINATION
• EARTH AWARENESS
• EARTH MYSTERIES
• ESOTERIC TEACHINGS
• FOLK & FAIRY TALES
• FOOD & NUTRITION
• GNOSTIC & APOCRYPHAL
• GURDJIEFF & FOURTH WAY
• HEALTH & HEALING
• HERMETIC ARTS
• INDIAN PHILOSOPHY
• MAGICK & OCCULT
• MARTIAL ARTS
• MODERN TEACHERS
• MYTHOLOGY
• NATIVE AMERICAN INDIAN
• NORTHERN TRADITION
• PARANORMAL
• PERENNIAL PHILOSOPHY
• PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT
• PSYCHOLOGY
• SECRET SOCIETIES
• SHAMANISM
• SUBTLE ENERGY
• SUFISM & ISLAM
• TAOISM & I CHING
• TAROT BOOKS
• THEOSOPHY
• TIBETAN BUDDHISM
• WITCHCRAFT & WICCA
• YOGA
• ZEN BUDDHISM

They still seem to be trading via their web site. Maybe they foresee a brighter future as the Election ushers in a New Age?

Cleaver

lostinrates wrote: »

D told me this is in administratrion now.

debts of £500k. Been there over a hundred years.

I don't know the bookshop you refer to, but do you think it's a case of 90 years of profit making, then Amazon comes along, and... oh dear.

Sad really, but I reckon this must be the case for a lot of bookshops. I find myself in a quandry as I love buying books and love browsing bookshops. Especially the older, traditional ones with bendy shelves and books from floor to celing. But then Amazon is just normally so much cheaper, easier and stocks everything so I tend to end up using it most of the time.

nearlynew

Davesnave wrote: »

Here's a list of subjects covered:

BOOKS

• AFRICAN SPIRITUALITY
• ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE
• ANCIENT BRITAIN
• ANCIENT CIVILISATIONS
• ANGELS & FAERIES
• ASTROLOGY
• BODYWORK
• BUDDHISM
• CHRISTIAN SPIRITUALITY
• CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY
• CONSCIOUSNESS
• CONSPIRACY THEORY
• CREATIVITY
• DIVINATION
• EARTH AWARENESS
• EARTH MYSTERIES
• ESOTERIC TEACHINGS
• FOLK & FAIRY TALES
• FOOD & NUTRITION
• GNOSTIC & APOCRYPHAL
• GURDJIEFF & FOURTH WAY
• HEALTH & HEALING
• HERMETIC ARTS
• INDIAN PHILOSOPHY
• MAGICK & OCCULT
• MARTIAL ARTS
• MODERN TEACHERS
• MYTHOLOGY
• NATIVE AMERICAN INDIAN
• NORTHERN TRADITION
• PARANORMAL
• PERENNIAL PHILOSOPHY
• PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT
• PSYCHOLOGY
• SECRET SOCIETIES
• SHAMANISM
• SUBTLE ENERGY
• SUFISM & ISLAM
• TAOISM & I CHING
• TAROT BOOKS
• THEOSOPHY
• TIBETAN BUDDHISM
• WITCHCRAFT & WICCA
• YOGA
• ZEN BUDDHISM

They still seem to be trading via their web site. Maybe they foresee a brighter future as the Election ushers in a New Age?

Never heard of them, but if that's the type of sh1te they've been peddling, they deserve to go bust.

lostinrates

I can't believe only Davesnave and I are giggling....

Cleaver, my problem with amazon, and the huge bookshop davesnave knows I go to some times, is that you have to sort of know what you want to buy. with smaller bookshops, in the flesh, you can be inspired. I like to read the fiction prize short lists each year: its nice to have them easily grouped for me....other things I like to just stumble across, but that's ok when its a couple of thousand of books to stumble over, whn the choice is so vast its too hard....
actually touching and smelling books is hugely persuasive in a way that reading the titles and seeing a picture of it on a screen isn't to me.

vivatifosi

I'd say that the writing on the wall for bookshops started with the end of the Net Book Agreement rather than mass ordering from Amazon. The ending of the Net Book Agreement not only opened the doors for Amazon, but also other stores to sell books at significantly below RRP. So now bookstores compete with the likes of Tesco as well as Amazon.

If a bookshop can come up with a good value prop then there's no reason that they shouldn't stay on the high street. In the case of Watkins Esoteric Bookshop, I'd argue that its target market may not be a geographic one and therefore the right place for it to be could well be cyberspace rather than a physical location.

One of the interesting questions regarding this business will be whether or not they own their freehold, as many older established businesses will, or whether at some point they've sold it back, which may also indicate that they've traded through difficulties in the past. If they have a low cost-base in terms of premises already and still went into administration, then that imo could make it harder to continue to trade in the future than a company with very high overheads escaping the shackles of West End rents.

Cleaver

lostinrates wrote: »

I can't believe only Davesnave and I are giggling....

Cleaver, my problem with amazon, and the huge bookshop davesnave knows I go to some times, is that you have to sort of know what you want to buy. with smaller bookshops, in the flesh, you can be inspired. I like to read the fiction prize short lists each year: its nice to have them easily grouped for me....other things I like to just stumble across, but that's ok when its a couple of thousand of books to stumble over, whn the choice is so vast its too hard....

I dunno, Amazon do stuff that can draw me in to buying a book or lead me on to others. A lot of the books now are part of 'user lists' that show similar books (for example, if you click on a financial book it might be part of a usermade 'best 20 financial books of all time' list and I also think the user reviews can be interesting.

However, I know what you mean about knowing what you want to buy. I normally head to Amazon to buy one or two books, I very rarely browse there for pleasure.

vivatifosi

Cleaver wrote: »

I dunno, Amazon do stuff that can draw me in to buying a book or lead me on to others. A lot of the books now are part of 'user lists' that show similar books (for example, if you click on a financial book it might be part of a usermade 'best 20 financial books of all time' list and I also think the user reviews can be interesting.

I use the function in Amazon that tells you what books other people who have bought that book have also bought. That gives very accurate matches. In terms of the user lists, working in a library I get to know who reads the same types of books as me and I can ask them in person what they think of the book (it may be a poorly paid job but I have an army of volunteers to do my research for me). Oddly, I'm now aware that I have the book reading profile of a 30-50 year old man.

Back onto the subject of Charing Cross Road, the antiquarian booksellers also have an internet leviathan - in the form of Abe Books - that is changing the model for second-hand book selling. However in the case of Abe at least the stores themselves get a virtual shop front, rather than the Amazon model where Amazon is the dominant retailer on its own site.

Davesnave

vivatifosi wrote: »

I'd say that the writing on the wall for bookshops started with the end of the Net Book Agreement rather than mass ordering from Amazon. The ending of the Net Book Agreement not only opened the doors for Amazon, but also other stores to sell books at significantly below RRP. So now bookstores compete with the likes of Tesco as well as Amazon.

You beat me to it. Our family ditched its bookshop when they got wind that the NBA was likely to end.

I can't remember the exact details now, but I recall that DW went out and got a real job somewhere else before the inevitable happened.

As LIR says, one finds all kinds of inspiration when handling the goods in a bookshop, but I went one better and.....hang on, I may be PPR'd if I continue!!:rotfl:

drc

lostinrates wrote: »

D told me this is in administratrion now.

debts of £500k. Been there over a hundred years.

Made me giggle a little; with all those forecesting resources and guides....and they didn't see it coming.

Noooooo! :eek:

I absolutely love Watkins. Spent many a time in my youth with Aleister Crowley .

Sir_Humphrey

lostinrates wrote: »

D told me this is in administratrion now.

debts of £500k. Been there over a hundred years.

Made me giggle a little; with all those forecesting resources and guides....and they didn't see it coming.

A few of the Cecil Court bookshops have gone recently. There was one which sold collectable stuff. Pride of place in the window was a signed photo of Colin Baker as Dr Who. For some reason their sales clearly did not generate a profit.

I fairly regularly head down Cecil Court, so I'll take a look for myself. I know the shop you mean and remember thinking it sold a load of old cobblers.