Few cities in the world wear their literary lineage as openly as London. From Charles Dickens’s fog-shrouded alleys to Zadie Smith’s multicultural North London, every corner is alive with stories. It’s a city where you can sip tea in a cafe frequented by Virginia Woolf, browse books aboard a barge, or stand where William Shakespeare’s words first echoed along the Thames.
London has been both muse and stage for centuries, and even today it seems to be a time capsule of literature for booklovers. Whether you’re tracing the footsteps of Romantic poets, listening to sonnets under the stars, or thumbing through yellowed paperbacks on a canal boat, London offers a deeply atmospheric way to experience literature.
Here are 10 things to do in the city of Dickens and Woolf.
1. Browse books on water at Word on the Water
Moored along Regent’s Canal near King’s Cross, Word on the Water is a 1920s Dutch barge turned floating bookshop. On its snug, wood-lined hull, you’ll find everything from poetry to second-hand novels. In summer, the roof deck hosts jazz sessions and poetry readings, enhancing the appeal of one of London’s most-loved literary spots.
2. Walk in the footsteps of writers
Explore Bloomsbury and Clerkenwell on a walking tour that maps the city through its great authors. In Bloomsbury, follow Woolf and the Bloomsbury Group, who shaped early modernism over tea and conversation. Head east to Clerkenwell, where Dickens once lived, drawing inspiration for Oliver Twist from its alleys and workhouses.
3. Marvel at treasures in the British Library
The British Library’s Treasures Gallery holds some of the world’s most precious manuscripts: Beowulf, one of the earliest surviving literary texts from the English-speaking world; Shakespeare’s First Folio; Jane Austen’s letters; and Beatles lyrics scribbled on envelopes. Beyond the exhibitions, the library offers serene courtyards and cafes for quiet reflection about the many people who shaped world literature.
4. Experience Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre
On the South Bank of the Thames, the Globe Theatre offers a faithful recreation of Shakespeare’s 1599 playhouse. Attend an open-air performance as a groundling – standing in the pit as Elizabethan audiences once did – or join a behind-the-scenes tour to learn how the theatre was rebuilt using traditional materials. Few experiences capture the vitality of language quite like watching Hamlet under the summer sky.
5. Get immersed in Daunt Books
A temple for travellers and readers alike, Daunt Books in Marylebone is famous for its oak galleries, skylights and beautifully arranged travel section. Each country’s shelf mixes fiction, memoir and guidebooks, a reminder that reading is its own form of travel. Even if you leave empty-handed, its quiet elegance feels like a small pilgrimage completed.
6. Pay homage at 221B Baker Street
Sherlock Holmes may be fictional, but his presence in London feels real. The Sherlock Holmes Museum at 221B Baker Street recreates the detective’s Victorian study, down to the last magnifying glass. For fans of Arthur Conan Doyle, it’s a must-make stop, one that provides a glimpse into the foggy world of deduction and mystery that defined the great detective.
7. Visit Keats House
Keats House in Hampstead, where John Keats once lived, loved Fanny Brawne, and wrote many of his most celebrated poems, is marking a double anniversary this year: 230 years since the poet’s birth and 100 years since the house first opened as a museum. Keats House 100, a centenary exhibition, showcases the poet’s home as it looked in 1925, the year it became a public space.
8. Step inside the Charles Dickens Museum
Located in Dickens’ former Bloomsbury home, this beautifully preserved museum reveals the domestic world of one of England’s greatest storytellers. Visitors can see his writing desk, letters and the dining room where he entertained guests with readings. The creak of the floorboards and flicker of candlelight seem to echo the spirit of David Copperfield and Great Expectations.
9. Wander through Westminster Abbey’s Poets’ Corner
For a moment of quiet reverence, step into Poets’ Corner at Westminster Abbey, where the lives of Dickens, Geoffrey Chaucer, Alfred Tennyson and Thomas Hardy are celebrated. More than 100 poets and writers are buried or have memorials here, with the marble slabs and engraved verses creating a collective portrait of English literature through the centuries.
10. Join a London Literary Pub Crawl
End your day where many writers began theirs – in the pub. The London Literary Pub Crawl takes you from Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, once frequented by Samuel Johnson and Dickens, to Fitzroy Tavern, where George Orwell and Dylan Thomas debated over pints. Don’t miss The George, the only surviving galleried coaching inn in London and a favoured haunt of Dickens.
Other literary stops
If time allows, London has countless other bookish corners to discover. Sip beverages among books at BookBar in Islington, or pair literature with coffee and cake at London Review Bookshop near the British Museum. Catch contemporary voices at Royal Court Theatre, or a spoken-word night at Southbank Centre, home to the National Poetry Library.
Bookshop lovers can wander from Hatchards, London’s oldest bookstore that was established 1797, to Foyles on Charing Cross Road, a vast temple of literature with a cosy cafe. Step into Persephone Books, which revives forgotten works by 20th-century women writers, or stop by South Kensington Books, a neighbourhood gem for art and design lovers.
Those seeking more literary adventures can follow the blue plaques through Bloomsbury to the former homes of Woolf and EM Forster, or explore an imaginary world at the Harry Potter Shop at Platform 9¾ in King’s Cross.
Hands-on travellers can try their hand at the craft of bookbinding at Shepherds Bookbinders or London Centre for Book Arts, while lovers of solitude may find refuge in the Senate House Library, which is said to have inspired Orwell’s vision of the Ministry of Truth, the fictional government agency in Nineteen Eighty-Four
No matter where you go, literature turns up at every corner in London: on a narrow boat stacked with second-hand paperbacks, in a bookshop that was opened centuries ago, and in museums that showcase centuries of storytelling.
