Newham Bookshop logo (2015)

Open Tuesday to Saturday from
10 am to 5 pm.

We can send books by post, usually £3 in the UK.
Newham Bookshop logo (2015) The Wanstead Tap logo
Newham Bookshop events at The Wanstead Tap, Spring 2024
  • Wednesday 20 March at 7.30 pm

    Ladies Who London LIVE!
    with Leo Hollis: Inheritance

  • Thursday 18 April at 7.30 pm

    Sarah Wise
    The Undesirables

  • Thursday 25 April at 7.30 pm

    Andrew Whitehead
    A Devilish Kind Of Courage




Newham Bookshop by Pete Fallan
Newham Bookshop, Pete Fallan, March 2021.


Tuesday 5 July at 7.30 pm
at The Wanstead Tap

The Wanstead Tap logo

Tickets £5
from Newham Bookshop
or The Wanstead Tap

A Walk in the Park
A Walk in the Park
is published in hardback by
Jonathan Cape at £18.99.
Travis Elborough

We are pleased to welcome Travis Elborough back for another of his fascinating talks

Travis Elborough
A Walk in the Park

The Life and Times of a People’s Institution

Parks are such a familiar part of everyday life. You might be forgiven for thinking they have always been there — and that they always will.

In fact, the roots of even the most humble neighbourhood park lie in age-old battles over land and liberty. From their medieval life as private royal hunting grounds to their modern incarnation as public spaces teeming with activity, theirs is a story of land-grabbing monarchs and Restoration fops, great Victorian industrialists, punks and model-boaters — and somewhere among it all, the common man trying to enjoy his single day of rest. It’s a story best told by way of the Epic of Gilgamesh and Gary Numan LPs, with trips into the lives of celebrated engineers and artists, and the occasional hop across the Atlantic and the Channel.

Along the way, parks have proved themselves to be shape-shifters, transforming according to their public’s need — they’ve been converted into wartime farms; by night, they’ve provided some with the perfect location for illicit rendezvous. But right now, in an era of cuts, British parks are under threat. As such, Travis Elborough’s joyful and loving portrait is a timely celebration of a small wonder that we may on occasion take for granted. It will have your next trip to the park brimming with history, anecdote and new meaning.

A Walk in the Park is a loving exploration of public parks and green space and was described as “quirky and delightful” by the Observer.

Acclaimed by the Guardian as “one of the country’s finest pop culture historians”, Travis Elborough has been a freelance writer, author, broadcaster and cultural commentator for more than a decade, and frequently appears on BBC Radio 4 and Five Live. His books include Wish You Were Here: England on Sea and The Long-Player Goodbye, a hymn to vinyl records that inspired the BBC Four documentary When Albums Ruled the World.

Watch out for online events


Family lessons for
Writing and Reading Newham
available here

On the Record logo

Interested in learning more about Newham Bookshop and some of the people connected with it? We have four lessons for classroom or family use developed from On the Record’s oral history project centered around Newham Bookshop, Writing and Reading Newham. Click here for full details.


LoveReading logo

Newham Bookshop is LoveReading’s
Bookshop of the Month

We are proud that Newham Bookshop is LoveReading’s Bookshop of the Month. The article features a Q&A with Vivian Archer, which you can read here.


Thank you poster