Motor Books, Cecil Court, London

[Barry Ten]

I've been a regular customer of Motor Books for years, since I'm up in London often enough and it's not far from my usual haunts. But the railway section has been much reduced over the last year or two, along with the size of the shop, and if I'm going to be honest the last couple of times I've popped in (a week today was the last) there wasn't anything to tempt me. They used to stock a good selection of train mags, for instance, so I'd always make sure of buying an issue or two of Loco Revue at the very least, but again the selection of mags went down drastically. It's definitely a shame but the writing was very obviously on the wall.

[Bulleidboy100]

I've only just picked this up, but I'm sorry to hear that Motor Books is closing (closed?). Having worked in Holborn for some forty seven years, I visited the shop now and again. Also St Martins Models was a regular stop. I have a very large collection of 1/43rd Ferrari's  (150+) - now all boxed up in the loft - interest isn't what it was! I used to check out Motor Books for early copies of the Autocourse F1 annual - I have them all from 1968 - earlier than that attract very serious prices. As has already been said London rents are crucifying small specialist shops. I used to go into St Martins Model on average of once a week, there was never ever anybody else in the shop - and it was lunch hour. 

[bingley hall]

I've only just picked this up, but I'm sorry to hear that Motor Books is closing (closed?). Having worked in Holborn for some forty seven years, I visited the shop now and again. Also St Martins Models was a regular stop. I have a very large collection of 1/43rd Ferrari's  (150+) - now all boxed up in the loft - interest isn't what it was! I used to check out Motor Books for early copies of the Autocourse F1 annual - I have them all from 1968 - earlier than that attract very serious prices. As has already been said London rents are crucifying small specialist shops. I used to go into St Martins Model on average of once a week, there was never ever anybody else in the shop - and it was lunch hour. 

 

If no-one is visiting these shops as several have reported, then simple logic dictates it is more than London rents that is crucifying them.

[Horsetan]

I suppose Ian Allan at Waterloo may be slightly more crowded now...

[RThompson]

Having visited the Birmingham, waterloo and Cardiff branches of Ian Allan on a fair few occasions, I've never seen more than 3 at any one time sadly.

 

Not just these but like a lot of other shops, it really does make me wonder how they manage to survive or that I manage to miss the masses of purchasers?

[petethemole]

London branch was quite busy at lunchtime on a Wednesday recently, definitely more than 3 in!

[TEAMYAKIMA]

Does anyone know what happened to Motor Books selling on the internet?

 

Anyone know what happened to the staff? John Scott-Morgan?

[robertcwp]

On 28/10/2020 at 08:30, TEAMYAKIMA said:

Does anyone know what happened to Motor Books selling on the internet?

 

Anyone know what happened to the staff? John Scott-Morgan?

John Scott-Morgan is so far as I know the commissioning editor for railway titles at Pen & Sword. However, it's a long time since I have seen or heard of him.