Bumpus Booksellers' Publicity Booklets

An Old House of Books

The following extracts are from a booklet published c.1930 to commemorate the opening of an extension to Bumpus booksellers' Oxford Street premises

The booklet contains a statement of The Firm's Policy:

The dissemination of good literature on a big scale, and the placing of proper facilities for buying good literature at the service of the public.

Books deal with every phase of life, and the bookseller who can offer the widest selection will best serve the interest of his clients. Our business has been re-organised on the sole basis of giving the British public the finest bookselling service in the country. In face of the huge annual output of new publications, such an establishment as that of Messrs J. & E. Bumpus has become a necessity. Faced with a flood of print, not ten per cent. of which can be styled "literature," the average reader is bewildered; he cannot find the time to judge the different values. That is the opportunity for the Bumpus Bookselling Service. The training of fifty assistants is focussed upon the discovery and recommendation of the best books - books that appeal to thought, books that stir the imagination, that reveal life, or mirror beauty - books that amuse, attract, or entertain. It is to help the reader to make the best choice from such a mass of literature that the energies and interest of the House are directed.

A View of the Saloon One Hundred Years Ago
From this room were sent out the old Night Watchmen who were rather an incentive to than a prevention of disturbance. Oxford Street, ill-lit, ill-paved, may now be remembered only through books.
This illustration is believed to be from a contemporary drawing by Rowlandson of the 18th century interior of the Old Watch House. The vaults of the Watch House were later used for new book reserves, securely guarded by a strong cell door.

Front Saloon on ground floor for New Books

First Floor: Bound Book Department

First Floor: The Second-hand Department

Second Floor: The Children's Room

This illustration was accompanied by the observation that:

our modern preoccupations are occasionally relieved by memories of Jack Sheppard and Dick Turpin, both of whom enjoyed the hospitality of our cellars.

Second Floor: Literary Service Bureau

New Saloon on Ground Floor for New Books: Our Letter Order Department

Bumpus' Monthly List of Good Books

The Old House

This photo of the shop's Marylebone entrance was accompanied by commentary that pointed out the great age of the site:

there had been first the Church of Old Tyburn, and, later, the great House of Harley. The Harleys were created Earls of Oxford, and their arms may still be seen over the doorway. Perhaps the noble Harleian Library was formed here.

Below: Some illustrations from the booklet (presumably c.1939) about John & Edward Bumpus Ltd, Booksellers to His Majesty the King, 350 Oxford Street, London W1

Accompanying the illustration of the frontage of Bumpus Booksellers Oxford Street premises in the late 1830s was a brief history, an extract of which has been quoted below:

Bumpus's was originally founded by John Bumpus about 1790 at St John's Gate, Clerkenwell, near by the printing-house of the Gentleman's Magazine (to which Dr. Johnson was the chief contributor), and was shortly removed to no.6 Holborn bars (near the "Blue Posts,") where the coach started for Hampstead). In the 1850's a branch shop opened at No.158, now No.350, Oxford Street..., and towards the end of last century the business was removed entirely to that address.

Thomas Bumpus, the son of the founder, became one of the best-known booksellers of Victorian times, counting among his friends Dickens and Lamb, Macaulay and Wordsworth, Sydney Smith, Thomas Campbell, and Thomas Moore.

Bumpus's Oxford Street frontage, which was rebuilt c1880.

The north end of the Court House building, which was erected c1825. The view is towards Oxford Street.