United Kingdom

London

The Arts

Books

Medicinal

PRIM

Continuing our series of Black-owned businesses is PRIM, a new digital storytelling platform designed to uplift the Black community. Their focus is to connect showcase different cultural histories and shared lived experiences.

PRIM celebrate the return of their pop-up bookstore for the second year running.  To coincide with the launch, they've come through with a Trippin guide. From Black feminist works to children’s literature and heritage archives, PRIM have highlighted their top Black-owned bookstores around the UK.

Our personal favourite obviously, boasting work not just from your favourites but across art, sports and most importantly culture. In creating our pop-up libraries and this bookshop, it's a snapshot into what a permanent PRIM bookshop could look and feel like. We want it to be an immersive space, giving room for queer and Black artists to discover, explore and showcase whilst also fusing literature with cultural activities from across artistic disciplines and inviting everyone to explore and discover with us.

New Beacon is literally the beacon, one of the most renowned bookstores in London to really help us dig into fiction and non-fiction by Black authors. They are the blueprint for PRIM, and have been serving the community for decades.


We love Round Table Books because it provides the fun environment we all needed as children and young adults. A place where we can look around at all the books and see ourselves. A great place to take your young ones.


Healthy remedies in abundance, this is a special store. Pempasie provides us with natural products for hair and body, culture, remedies, African art and reading materials we'll need to begin or maintain a holistic lifestyle. This is a special store that I've personally felt really excited by.

Crowned Independent Bookshop of the Year 2021, this bookstore has been around since 1948. With regular book clubs, authors events and a dedicated children's shop, it's another one that has truly been serving the community for a very long time.

A space not just for books but for learning history in a variety of mediums. Black Cultural Archives is so important because it is one of few heritage sites we have in London and in the UK overall. A visit here will leave you with more than books to talk about.

A queer-Black-woman-owned project inspired by resistance, imagination and care. We've always loved and been inspired by this project. Whilst they do not have a physical shop, much like us, they are often taking up spaces, as they did recently with their EcoFeminist Summit.

Based in Oxfordshire, African Books Collective is an African-owned, worldwide marketing and distribution outlet for books from Africa – scholarly literature and children's books. Love the ethos here, which brings works we couldn't readily get here directly to us. An incredibly needed service.

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8 Black-Owned Bookstores in London with PRIM

Pempamsie Ltd (Harlesden)

Bookstore

Pempasie Harlesden

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Abuja

Accra

Addis Ababa

Almere 

Amman

Amsterdam

Asunción

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Bath

Beijing

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Benin City

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Medellin

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Pempasie Harlesden

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