Best Stationery Stores in London: 10 Shops to Visit

A row of six London shopfronts whose signs read Choosing Keeping, Present & Correct, Smythson, Shepherds, Papersmiths and Marby & Elm, with a red pillar box at the end of the street — Six of the ten stores in this guide, from Bloomsbury to Chelsea, checked on October 25, 2026.

Notes on these stores

Choosing Keeping: 21 Tower Street, Covent Garden (Seven Dials), London. Opened on Columbia Road in 2012 and moved to Tower Street in 2018, per its own history. Checked October 25, 2026 on the store's own page.
Present & Correct: 12 Bury Place, Bloomsbury, London. Online since 2009, with a first shop in 2012; it moved to Bloomsbury in 2023. Checked October 25, 2026 on the store's own page.
L. Cornelissen & Son: 105 Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury, London. Checked October 25, 2026 on the store's own page.
Marby & Elm: 53 Exmouth Market, Clerkenwell (Exmouth Market), London. Checked October 25, 2026 on the store's own page.
Liberty London: Regent Street, West End (Regent Street), London. Checked October 25, 2026 on the store's own page.
Mount Street Printers: 4 Mount Street, Mayfair, London. Its site offers appointments; the presses are in Acton, West London. Checked October 25, 2026 on the store's own page.
Shepherds: 30 Gillingham Street, Victoria (Pimlico), London. Shepherds' bindery, Shepherds Sangorski & Sutcliffe, is at 76 Rochester Row, weekdays by appointment. Checked October 25, 2026 on the store's own page.
Smythson Sloane Street: 141–142 Sloane Street, Knightsbridge (Sloane Street), London. Smythson also lists counters at Selfridges, Harrods and Liberty, and Heathrow Terminal 5. Checked October 25, 2026 on the store's own page.
Papersmiths Chelsea: 170 Pavilion Road, Chelsea, London. Checked October 25, 2026 on the store's own page.
Green & Stone: 251–253 Fulham Road, Chelsea (Fulham Road), London. Checked October 25, 2026 on the store's own page.
Stores move, close and change hours. Always check the store's site or Instagram before you go.

Key takeaways

We list 10 London stationery stores, each checked on its own website on October 25, 2026: 6 in central London (Covent Garden, Bloomsbury, Clerkenwell, the West End and Mayfair) and 4 in the southwest (Victoria, Knightsbridge and Chelsea).
Choosing Keeping lists 138 fountain pens online, from a Lamy Safari at £25 (about US$33) to Platinum #3776 celluloid pens at £600 (about US$790).
Shepherds, by Victoria Station, stocks 700 shelves of papers from around the world plus bookbinding cloths, leathers and tools, per its own history page.
Smythson's store list on October 25, 2026 shows its London flagship at 141–142 Sloane Street, with a Bespoke Stationery Salon, not on Bond Street, where Frank Smythson opened in 1887.
London has no tax-free shopping for visitors: per GOV.UK, shops in Great Britain can sell VAT-free only when they ship the goods straight to an address outside the UK.

What are the best stationery stores in London?

For a first visit, go to Choosing Keeping in Covent Garden for pens and paper, Present & Correct in Bloomsbury for desk goods, and Shepherds near Victoria Station for fine paper. These three come first because each covers one need in depth: a shop that lists 138 fountain pens beside Japanese silkscreen papers, desk objects from 15 to 18 countries, and 700 shelves of paper.

Store	Neighbourhood	Known for	Official site
Choosing Keeping	Covent Garden	Fountain pens, inks, papers	choosingkeeping.com
Present & Correct	Bloomsbury	Own designs, desk goods, vintage	presentandcorrect.com
L. Cornelissen & Son	Bloomsbury	Calligraphy inks, pigments since 1855	cornelissen.com
Marby & Elm	Clerkenwell	Letterpress cards made in the shop	marbyandelm.com
Liberty London	West End	Liberty-print notebooks, Smythson counter	libertylondon.com
Mount Street Printers	Mayfair	Die-stamped personal stationery	mountstreetprinters.com
Shepherds	Victoria	700 shelves of fine paper	shepherds-arts.co.uk
Smythson Sloane Street	Knightsbridge	Diaries, Bespoke Stationery Salon	smythson.com
Papersmiths Chelsea	Chelsea	Notebooks, diaries, own range	papersmiths.co.uk
Green & Stone	Chelsea	Art materials since 1927	greenandstone.com

How did we choose these stores?

We picked shops that focus on stationery, pens, paper or printing and were open on October 25, 2026, then weighed what each one stocks and does. Our criteria:

A dedicated focus on stationery, paper, printing or art materials; Liberty is the one department store, for its own stationery and its Smythson counter.
Something you can only do there, such as Shepherds’ paper by the sheet, Marby & Elm’s cards printed in the shop or Smythson’s Bespoke Stationery Salon.
Depth of range, such as Choosing Keeping’s fountain pens and Cornelissen’s calligraphy inks.
Standing in the stationery community, from Time Out London’s coverage cited below.
Open now, confirmed on each store’s own site on October 25, 2026.

We compiled this from the stores’ own websites and that coverage; we have not visited them for this guide, and we do not rate them.

Why is each store on the list?

Each store earns its place with a specific range or service, not general gift stock.

Choosing Keeping (Covent Garden): fountain pens from Kaweco to Pelikan, bottled inks, dip pens and decorative papers, on a Seven Dials side street since 2018.
Present & Correct (Bloomsbury): its own designs beside office objects and vintage finds, inspired by homework, the post office and school.
L. Cornelissen & Son (Bloomsbury): calligraphy inks, dip pens, nibs and pigments in a shop that keeps its 1855 Victorian fittings.
Marby & Elm (Clerkenwell): letterpress cards designed in the shop and mostly made there.
Liberty London (West End): Liberty-print notebooks and journals, with a Smythson counter on the 3rd floor.
Mount Street Printers (Mayfair): writing paper and notecards die-stamped on its own presses, ordered in its Mayfair studio.
Shepherds (Victoria): 700 shelves of paper, from marbled to Japanese, plus bookbinding cloths, leathers and tools.
Smythson Sloane Street (Knightsbridge): the company’s flagship, with a Bespoke Stationery Salon and gold stamping.
Papersmiths Chelsea: notebooks, diaries and pens, with Papersmiths’ own London-designed range.
Green & Stone (Chelsea): paper, sketchbooks and paints over two floors, from a shop founded in 1927.

Which London stores are best for fountain pens and ink?

Choosing Keeping is the strongest single stop: it lists 138 fountain pens, from a Lamy Safari at £25 (about US$33) to Platinum #3776 celluloid pens at £600 (about US$790). Between them sit Kaweco Sports, Pelikan M200s and acetate pens from Japan’s Ohnishi Seisakusho, with bottled inks, dip pens and drawing inks in the same shop.

London has lost its specialist pen counters: Penfriend’s site says its Burlington Arcade, Bush House and Fleet Street premises have closed, and it now works by appointment. For calligraphy, L. Cornelissen & Son stocks inks and nibs ten minutes’ walk from Choosing Keeping. Compare starter pens in our fountain pens for beginners guide and nibs in our calligraphy pens guide.

Which London stores are best for paper and personal stationery?

Shepherds near Victoria Station is London’s paper specialist: 700 shelves of papers from around the world, a wall of bookbinding cloths and leathers, and handmade stationery, per its history. It began in 1988 on Rochester Row and later took in Falkiner Fine Papers.

For engraved and printed stationery, Smythson’s Sloane Street flagship runs a Bespoke Stationery Salon, and Mount Street Printers in Mayfair starts personalised stationery from £162 (about US$214), die-stamped in its own factory. Marby & Elm in Exmouth Market sells letterpress cards designed in the shop.

How do you plan a stationery day in London?

Group the shops into four clusters, and check Sunday hours first: Shepherds, Cornelissen and Marby & Elm close on Sundays.

Covent Garden and Bloomsbury: Choosing Keeping, then Cornelissen on Great Russell Street and Present & Correct around the corner on Bury Place, within about 1 km (0.6 mile).
West End and Mayfair: Liberty on Regent Street, then Mount Street Printers; book an appointment for an order.
Clerkenwell: Marby & Elm opens Tuesday to Saturday, noon to 5 pm.
Victoria, Knightsbridge and Chelsea: Shepherds, then Smythson and Papersmiths, a few doors apart off Sloane Street, and Green & Stone on Fulham Road.

To-scale map of 10 London stationery stores at their addresses, from Marby & Elm in Clerkenwell to Green & Stone in Chelsea, with the Thames and the royal parks — Where the stores are, drawn to scale from each postcode; check addresses before you go. Map data: ONS boundaries and OS Open Greenspace (Open Government Licence; contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right); railway stations © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL); store positions: ONS Postcode Directory via postcodes.io.

Can visitors shop tax-free in London?

No, not over the counter: GOV.UK says shops in Great Britain can sell tax-free goods only when they deliver them straight to an address outside the UK. Ask a shop whether it will ship your order abroad, and expect to pay postage.

Which London stationery stores did we leave out?

We left out Paperchase, whose site now redirects to Tesco, Penfriend, whose shops have closed, and online-only sellers such as Cult Pens. Smythson’s New Bond Street shop does not appear in its store list on October 25, 2026, so we list Sloane Street instead.

We also could not open the London Graphic Centre’s site in Covent Garden on October 25, 2026, and the Pen Shop’s site lists no shops, so neither is here; check before you go. More cities: see all our stationery store guides, city by city, from New York and San Francisco to Tokyo, Kyoto, Seoul, London, Paris, Vienna and Istanbul.

When is the next London pen show?

The London Spring Pen Show is on Sunday, February 28, 2027, 10 am to 4 pm, at the Novotel London West in Hammersmith, per UK Pen Shows’ ticket page. The autumn show returns October 2–3, 2027; this year’s ran October 10–11, as listed in our 2026 pen show calendar.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best stationery shop in London?

For one stop, Choosing Keeping at 21 Tower Street, Covent Garden: it lists 138 fountain pens online, plus bottled inks, dip pens and Japanese silkscreen and Italian woodblock papers. For paper by the sheet, go to Shepherds by Victoria Station; for design-led desk goods, Present & Correct in Bloomsbury.

Where to buy stationery in London?

Group the shops by area: Covent Garden and Bloomsbury (Choosing Keeping, Present & Correct, L. Cornelissen & Son), the West End and Mayfair (Liberty, Mount Street Printers), Clerkenwell (Marby & Elm), and Victoria, Knightsbridge and Chelsea (Shepherds, Smythson, Papersmiths, Green & Stone). Each group fits in half a day.

Where can I buy fountain pens in London?

Choosing Keeping in Covent Garden lists 138 fountain pens, from Kaweco and Lamy to Pelikan, Ohnishi Seisakusho and Platinum #3776 celluloid pens, with bottled inks alongside. Smythson's Sloane Street flagship and its counters at Selfridges, Harrods and Liberty sell its own writing goods; Penfriend's London shops have closed.

Where is the Smythson flagship store in London?

At 141–142 Sloane Street, SW1X 9AY, per Smythson's store list on October 25, 2026, with a Bespoke Stationery Salon and gold stamping. The company opened on Bond Street in 1887, but its current list shows no Bond Street shop. It also has counters in Selfridges, Harrods and Liberty.

Where can I buy fine paper in London?

Shepherds at 30 Gillingham Street, near Victoria Station, has 700 shelves of papers, including marbled and Japanese papers, plus bookbinding cloths and tools. It closes on Sundays. Choosing Keeping sells Japanese silkscreen and Italian woodblock papers, and L. Cornelissen & Son stocks calligraphy, printmaking and watercolour papers.

Is Paperchase still open?

Not as a chain of shops. Paperchase went into administration in January 2023, and Tesco bought the brand but none of its 106 shops, per LBC. On October 25, 2026, paperchase.com redirected to a Paperchase page on Tesco's grocery site, so look for the range in Tesco stores.

Where can I buy calligraphy supplies in London?

L. Cornelissen & Son at 105 Great Russell Street, near the British Museum, sells calligraphy inks and papers, dip pens, nibs and holders, pigments and gilding materials in its 1855 shop. Choosing Keeping in Covent Garden sells dip pens and drawing inks, a 10-minute walk away.

Sources (25)

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