Favourite London Market Places 2

Farringdon Road Book Stalls

The second and last part of Bill Lofts article (possibly unpublished) about London markets. This mainly deals with his search for books, comics and 'boy's books.' Loft's prose style is not exactly Nabokov but his enthusiasm and tireless research carries it along…there is much online about the dealer turned publisher Gerald Swan. Bill gives an affectionate portrait of him..

But easily the main attraction to me was the second-hand bookstall where I used to exchange my comics, and later boys papers. The proprietor was a Gerald Swan, later to become quite a famous publisher in our field of cheap paperback novels, comics, and boys papers, as well as Annuals which he named 'Albums'. These 'Swan Albums' were priced at 3/6d each - printed on the cover, but were sold at a shilling, when he probably still made a big profit on them. Mr Swan was really an extraordinary dressed man to be in charge of a wooden shabby bookstall.

Tall, thin, very distinguished looking with grey hair, a smart pin-striped suit, black bowler hat, and complete with usually a long black overcoat that he seemed to wear winter and summer. He wore a gold prince-nex, carried a rolled black umbrella as well as a pigskin brief case. In direct contrast to the roughly dressed costermongers on either side of him, he looked completely out of place in a common street market. Indeed he could have easily passed for a solicitor, or successful business man- though the latter he undoubtedly was, and who later dabbled on The Stock Exchange.

A Gerald Swan publication

His secondhand boys papers were as a rule sold for roughly halfprice though there were variations when they were much cheaper, as I seem to recall that the 4d Libraries were only a penny. But his real source of profit was in the exchange that was simply one copy for two of yours - two for one. When one considers the hundreds of customers who frequented his bookstall - in the long run the profit and amount of stock was enormous. No wonder that just before the last War he was able to set up business as a publisher.

Personally I have very happy memories of Gerald Swan, as he was a very genial friendly type of man, and indeed how he dressed a real gentleman. He had the characteristic of showing a customer a certain type of paper for their interest,

Favourite London Market Places 1

Portobello Road circa 1970
(from the Library Time Machine)

From the Peter Haining papers, this typed manuscript  by the great researcher and expert on British comics and periodicals W.O.G. ('Bill') Lofts (1923-1997). It is from the early 1970s and is slightly politically incorrect. Autre temps etc., The second part deals with Bill's quest for second hand books at these markets and here his taste is distinctly old fashioned. A vanished world.

My Favourite London Market Places.

I should think that most collectors, or at least those as youngsters in pre-Second World War days, would remember with some affection their local market place. In all probability this was where they bought or exchanged their comics and later Old Boys papers at a second-hand bookstall. This to supplement their regular weekly favourite ordered from the newsagent.

All Cities, towns and smaller localities in those days had its own market place, even if it comprised of just a few stalls, always the busiest time on a Saturday for the weekend shopping. Sad to say a great many have now disappeared due to development of the old sites, or found the huge supermarkets too much of a competition. Many that still remain have little interest to say the book collector consisting of the usual fruit and vegetable stalls, household goods, carpets, record and video shops, then the seemingly endless rows and racks containing cheap clothing such as dresses, jeans, leather jackets, then the cheap watch and jewelry stalls.

How vastly different it was in pre-days ! My own local market place was* Church Street market in St. Marylebone. London, that runs off the Edgware Road, about half a mile from Marble Arch. As I lived in a block of buildings off a turning from its centre, it took only a few minutes to get to. For a youngster with plenty of space time on his hands, it provided a very colorful scene in those days, with always plenty of interest. The market started around 1830,