Stamps Stores In London?

We will also be going to Paris in the spring, and I would be interested to hear thoughts about any shops there. We will also be going to Monaco during that trip.

As an aside, a few years back, my wife and I went to Ankara, Turkey, and there were two nice little shops next to each other in the same shopping plaza.

I tend not to go into stamp shops in Paris - there are many better things to do or see there. The one in the Palais Royal is usually open, and you can also enjoy the second-loveliest square in Paris (after Place des Vosges) and tread in the footsteps of Colette, who lived in rue Beaujolais above the Vefour restaurant. The Yvert shop in rue Drouot and the Ceres shop in rue du Louvre tend to keep more standard opening times than some of the others. Parisian input would be welcome!

There is a thrice weekly stamp market on the Champs Elysee, not far from the Elysee Palace.
Google 'Marche aux Timbres' to get more details. It is very good having been there myself.

Aside from the shops on the Rue Drouot, not far away off the Boulevard Montmartre is the splendid and charming Passage des Panoramas with more stamp and collectable shops. You will not want to leave ! When I was there, all of the shops were open.

Enjoy.

I visited Gibbons and the Strand Stamp Centre in October 2015.

Gibbons was like a pilgrimage but I couldn't find anything to buy. The staff were very helpful and friendly. Good old fashioned service.

I did stumble on a stamp shop in Salisbury though. I found a cover from Sydney to Chicago with a 6d DLR. Despite being trimmed down I bought it for £2 because the cancellation was Mrs DLR's birthday (the date, not the year )

In November I'll be visiting Salop Stamps in Shrewsbury http://salopstamps.co.uk/

Bobby DLR

I've long had the impression that Robin Hood Stamp Company has an awesome shop, though it's only open 1 day a week (Friday). And it is quite far north of London.

http://www.robinhood-stamp.co.uk/

The more I think about this, I am going to try and time our trip to coincide with a major stamp show in either London or Paris. London has a major International Exhibition in May, 2020. Many sellers in one room, price competition, hmmm......

Thanks for the replies regarding Paris. Sorry, didn't mean to hijack the London thread

In addition to Paris, we will be a couple of days in Nice and Monte Carlo/Monaco. However, given the limited amount of time, not sure my wife would appreciate spending it in stamp shops!

Resurrecting this thread because we will be in London in late October. I plan to stop by Gibbons although do not plan to buy any stamps there. Going in and looking at some of their albums may be the only way to find out what the pages look like. They refuse to illustrate them on their site or catalog. Am considering their New Age reprint album, may order one for shipment to me back home. Probably not if the wife is with me. We will be on a Rick Steves tour the latter part of our stay so won't have time to run about much, but will be arriving three days ahead of that . The first day will be a throwaway due to jet lag. We will have 2-3 days to go about on our own before joining the tour. any more updated ideas?

Unsure about Transatlantic posting, but Dauwalders are offering the hingeless SG range -

New Age - 6 vols - £599
GVI - 6 vols - £650
GV - 8 vols - £750
EVII - 4 vols - £475

Standard cheaper, Indian States additional.

1. If you have the albums shipped home, they could be held at the US port of entry for payment of customs duties plus a customs broker's fee. £599 at current exchange rates is a hair below the $800 ordinary maximum allowance for consumer imported goods. Who knows what it will be in October.

2. Other philatelic things to do in London include:
-- Attend a 1:00pm meeting of the Royal Philatelic (check rpsl.co.uk for the programme; fall 2018 won't be announced for a few months; email them in advance to indicate your attendance as some programmes are members-only)
-- Visit the Postal Museum and ride the compact underground Mail Rail train (advance tickets for Mail Rail are essential)
-- Find Postman's Park and the Rowland Hill statue
-- View parts of the Tapling Collection at the British Library
-- Visit the cluttered stamp shop directly across the street from Gibbons which sells (picked-through) collections, recent mint sets and postcards

There's a monthly central London stamp show (running nearly 50 years) near the Russell Square tube station. Generally the 1st Friday of the month & usually 20-30 dealers from UK & Europe, pretty evenly split between stamp & cover dealers. Due to London traffic, most dealers are set-up by 8am and leave between 2-3pm. Details for the Strand Stamp Fair are here:

http://www.stampshows.net/index.php...d=7&Itemid=8

Steve Taylor

Thanks for the link, Steve! The venue for this show, the Royal National is where we will be staying the first part of our visit but.. we won't be arriving until October 18. Nice to know for future reference.

Worth, I think, bearing in mind the drawbacks of the QEII New Age, whether in its ringbound or (previous) springback form. Whereas SG originally issued pages running up to the late-60s, it later introduced a 1962 cut-off. This is, of course, arbitrary. And the status of the countries varies considerably - fully independent, Dominions, colonies etc. The coherence of volumes covering QV-KGVI is rather lost here.

-- View parts of the Tapling Collection at the British Library

I can't recommend this enough!
Very "old school" display - pull out the frames and ogle the amazing collection of world-class rarities inches from your nose. They rotate through the various countries for the public display, but you can view the rest if you're researching something. The link says that M-Z are on display now.
https://www.bl.uk/reshelp/findhelpr...tapling.html

The British Library often has some amazing other exhibits. Last time I was there, they had the Magna Carta on display.

(And it's free)

I'm actually going to London in June/July, and have planned a few stamp-related activities.

As usual I will stop by Stanley Gibbons and pick up a few stamp magazines, hoping in vain for some stamp literature on clearance. I will cross the street and check out the stamp shop across the street as well, although I find that I rarely find much of interest there. It is fun to go looking there though.

The Charing Cross Collectors Market near the Embankment on Saturday is another place I plan to visit. I've briefly stopped by there once before, but wasn't really in a buying mood so just walked around looking at all the things for sale. This time I plan to do some buying though, if I find something of interest that is.

On Sunday I plan to check out a stamp fair in Milton Keynes. No idea what I'm walking into there, but will be fun to see another part of the London area even if the stamp fair is a bust.

I am considering going to the stamp store in Enfield as well. Has anybody been there? Is it worth a visit?

The British Library and the Postman's Park is also on my list now.