Where to go if you love books in London

From Highgate Cemetery to the mecca of all things opus, The British Library, here's nine lovely places in the Big Smoke everyone needs to visit if they love books.

Stroll through Bloomsbury

Bloomsbury is London's beating literary heart. From George Orwell to Charles Dickens, some of the world's biggest names in literature have called the London district home. Its most famous residents were those who made up the Bloomsbury Group, a small informal association of artists, poets, authors, thinkers, artists and intellectuals who pioneered some of the greatest works of the Modernist period. Remnants of their existence are easily found throughout WC1H. In Tavistock Square you'll find a bust of Virginia Woolf; by Pret opposite Russell Square tube, a blue plaque commemorating painter and critic Roger Fry; and in Gordon Square, the house where Virginia Woolf, E.M. Forster, Vanessa Bell and John Maynard Keynes would meet to discuss all things literature, culture and politics.

Just round the corner on Marchmount Street, you'll stumble on Gay's the Word, the only bookstore in the country dedicated to stocking queer literature, and if you head up even further, you'll see the flat where Percy and Mary Shelley used to call home above the coffee shop Fork.

In short, it really is London's very own literary celebrity bubble.

Visit the Hogarth Press

Wave hello to the Hogarth Press, a legendary publishing house which began life in 1917 under the helm of celebrated author and critic Virginia Woolf and husband Leonard. Named after their house in Richmond, the press published some of the most famous and infamous works in the modern canon: T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land, Virginia's Monday or Tuesday with woodcuts by her sister Vanessa Bell, and Dostoevsky's The Devils, as well as the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan's The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis.

Initially just a hobby of the Woolfs, the press eventually grew into a vast commercial project which is now headed up by literary publishing giant, Random House. Whilst not open to the public, you can still get a cool pic of the blue plaque which reads "In this house Leonard and Virginia Woolf lived and founded the Hogarth Press in 1917."

Highgate Cemetary

Yes, it might be a bit morbid but this Gothic plot is the final resting place of the country's most celebrated literary minds. Amidst the lavish catacombs, chapels and Egyptian-style tombs, see the graves of Karl Marx, Henry Gray, Middlemarch author George Eliot, several members of the Dickens' family and poet Christina Rossetti.

Poet's Corner

Inside Westminster Abbey lies Poets' Corner, where famous authors and poets of the land have been interred in the South Transept of The Queen's church. It's existence is by chance and since Geoffrey Chaucer's tomb was placed here in 1556, has served as somewhat of a literary hall of fame. A memorial to some of the country's great cultural thinkers, pay your respects to the likes of Henry Francis Clay, Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy, Rudyard Kipling, Laurence Olivier, Edmund Spenser and Lord Alfred Tennyson. Several other monuments commemorating famous writers are littered throughout, most notably Shakespeare, whose body lies in Stratford-upon-Avon.

Knockturn Alley and Diagon Alley

Yes, it may not have secured its place in the literary canon as of yet, but global phenomenon Harry Potter deserves a spot on any London list dedicated to books. Many fans often head to Platform 9 3/4 to get a glimpse of where the Hogwarts Express departs from King's Cross station. Sadly, they often miss out on a few other golden snitches in London which rarely ever get a nod. For something slightly off the Potter radar, head to the spots which inspired Rowling's penmanship of Knockturn and Diagon Alley instead.

First up is Goodwin's Court near Trafalgar Square, a cutesy little alley graced with some of the finest examples of Georgian architecture in the capital. It's here where Bellatrix and co schemed against all those who who tried to fight them in the Half Blood Prince and the Deathly Hallows.

Run a few metres west and you'll stumble upon Cecil Court, a charming little place known for its curious mix of bookshops and antique shops. Look left to right, and it's obvious how it inspired Diagon Alley. Travis and Emery basically looks like Ollivanders.

Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese

This lovely little pub on Fleet Street has played host to some of the most illustrious wordsmiths in town. Mark Twain, Alfred Tennyson, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, William Makepeace Thackerary, G.G. Chesterton, W.B. Yeats, Voltaire and Ben Jonson are all said to have passed through the pub's bar at one point. Dickens even alluded to the place in A Tale of Two Cities and Samuel Johnson moved next door to the boozer in 1748, though there is no record of him every going in for a quick pint. Must have done, though, right?

Go on a pilgrimage to Hatchards

The oldest bookshop in the UK and the country, Hatchards' was founded on the swanky and exclusive stretch of the Piccadilly in 1797 by John Hatchard, a celebrated English publisher, bookseller and Westminsterite. Originally founded with an impressive collection of books and knick-knacks bought from 18th century celebrity bookseller Simon Vandenbergh, the gorgeous mahogany shop has an unrivalled reputation for attracting extremely high-profile authors and poets, and holds no less than three royal warrants granted by Her Majesty, The Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh and Prince Charles.

Inside you'll find precisely 72,000 rare, limited and first editions, as well as signed copies spread over five mammoth Dickensian floors to take home. Tip: head to the first floor and you'll find a plush green sofa plonked on top of an exquisite carpet decorated with hundreds of Fleur-de-lis. It's the perfect place to unwind with a book with the roar and thunder of Piccadilly in the background. ​

Go for a pint at the George Inn and the Spaniards Inn

It's quite an accolade that a pub in London is older than the American constitution. Dating back some 400 years, the original George Inn was sadly destroyed during the Great Fire of London in 1666. To keep the literary legend alive, it was eventually rebuilt in all its nostalgic glory in St Katherine's Dock. Owned and looked after by the National Trust, Charles Dickens used to be one of the pub's most frequent patrons - heck, he loved the place so much that he even featured the pub in Chapter XXII of Little Dorrit. Best time to go? During the summer for a pint under the hanging baskets. Tolkien did it, so why can't you?

On the other side of London, you'll come across the The Spaniards Inn in Hampstead, one of the oldest pubs in the capital. Anyone who's anyone has visited over the years, including the likes of Lord Byron, John Keats and Mary Shelley. If that's not impressive enough, the pub even had starring roles in Bram Stoker's Dracula and Charles Dicken's Pickwick Papers. Once you've had a fine ale or two, go Heathside to get an incredible view of London town and beyond.

The British Library

This one sounds obvious, but very few often visit the world's second largest library. Originally part of the British Museum, the current British Library moved to its prime 1.2 million square foot Kings Cross base in 1998. More than 150 million items, including rare manuscripts, books, audio tapes and artefacts that date back an impressive 4,000 years make up the library's incredible collection.

Most of it can only be accessed if you're a member or in possession of a reader pass, but literature fans should make a bee line for the Sir John Riblat Gallery to gawp at some of the Library's greatest treasures. See everything from one of the original copies of the Magna Carta, the death warrant of Mary Queen of Scots signed by Queen Elizabeth I, as well as original copies of Beowulf, The Canterbury Tales, Alice in Wonderland and several select works from Jane Austen, Charles Dickens and Shakespeare's first folio.