Overview

My visit to this branch of Waterstones was deeply unsatisfactory. All sorts of unpleasant difficulties right from the front doors. Impossible to reach some areas within the shop because the display tables are so huge and the gaps around them so narrow. The only really good thing about my visit was the delightful members of staff I met around the shop.

Transport & Parking

The nearest step-free station is Tottenham Court Road, which is half a mile away. Several bus routes will drop you very near by in Gower St. Several bus routes pass down Tottenham Court Road, which is one block away (about three minutes walk/roll).

Access

There is step-free access at most entrances but no automatic doors, and the double doors are heavy and stiff and very hard for a wheelchair user to open and pass through because you have to open both doors at the same time. There is, at last, a good and new lift to all floors, located towards the Malet Street end of the building. There is too little room throughout the shop for a wheelchair user to manoeuvre, the display tables are huge and the gaps around them are too small for most wheelchair to pass through. Whole areas, entire sections, entire ranges of bookshelves, are therefore inaccessible to wheelchair users.

Toilets

I did not find any toilets of any kind. If I find a toilet in future I will update this review with details.

Staff

All the staff I encountered were utterly charming and keen to be proactively helpful. One member of staff deserves special praise for outstandingly friendly, helpful and delightful customer service, I found him in the basement on the afternoon of 19th April 2025, at the till nearest the artists' materials section, I didn't get his name, but he can be identified by his fringe and his youthfulness. The world needs more booksellers like him! The managers, however, are severely reprimanded for placing such large display tables all around the shop, creating barriers for wheelchair users, and for failing to install electric doors to facilitate ingress and egress for wheelchair users.

Anything else you wish to tell us?

This was in so many ways an unhappy shopping experience. The entrance doors alone, heavy double doors, not automatic, are enough to deter me from ever visiting this branch again. Does Waterstones not realise that disabled people spend money too, and that they are losing business by making their shop so dismally inaccessible?