Editing Hatchards (section)

==History==

Claiming to be the oldest bookshop in the United Kingdom,<ref>{{cite book |first=Peter |last=Marcan |title=Directory of Specialist Bookdealers in the United Kingdom Handling Mainly New Books: With Appendices Listing Specialist Directories of Museums, Libraries, and Associations |page=6 |year=1982 |isbn=978-0950421131}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Sandra L |last=Beckett |title=Crossover Fiction: Global and Historical Perspectives |page=212 |publisher=Routledge |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-415-98033-3}}</ref> Hatchards was founded at 173 [[Piccadilly]], London, by [[John Hatchard]] in 1797.<ref name="lonelyhatchards">{{cite web |title=Hatchards|url=http://www.lonelyplanet.com/england/london/shopping/books/hatchards|website=[[Lonely Planet]] |access-date=25 May 2016}}</ref> It moved within Piccadilly in 1801, to No.189–190; the site of the first shop was cleared in 1810 for the [[Egyptian Hall]] to be built. The second shop had a numbering change to 187, in 1820.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=Piccadilly, South Side |encyclopedia=Survey of London: St James Westminster, Part 1 |volume=29, 30 |publisher=London County Council |editor-first=F H W |editor-last=Sheppard |location=London |year=1960 |pages=251–270 |url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vols29-30/pt1/pp251-270 |access-date=20 January 2016 |via=British History Online}}</ref> It still trades today from the same address, and Hatchard's portrait can be seen on the staircase of the shop.

It was founded with a collection of merchandise bought from Simon Vandenbergh, a bookseller of the 18th century.

In 1939 Hatchards was acquired for £6,000 by convicted fraudster [[Clarence Hatry]], on his release from prison. He turned the ailing business around, and in 1946 he also acquired the [[Thomas Werner Laurie|T. Werner Laurie Ltd.]] publishing firm.<ref name="moneyweek">{{Cite web |last=Stepek |first=John |date=2017-10-20 |title=How one of the first big property bubbles led to the Great Depression |url=https://moneyweek.com/475045/florida-property-bubble-great-depression/2 |access-date=2025-03-04 |website=moneyweekuk |language=en}}</ref><ref>George Greenfield, ''A Smattering of Monsters: A Kind of Memoir'', Camden House, 1995.</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Swinson |first=Chris |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wwWQDwAAQBAJ&dq=Clarence+Hatry+laurie&pg=PT11 |title=Share Trading, Fraud and the Crash of 1929: A Biography of Clarence Hatry |date=2019-04-02 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-429-64892-2 |language=en}}</ref>

Hatchards was acquired by [[William Collins, Sons]] in 1956. In the 1980s it expanded the number of its retail outlets, opening branches across the UK. It was bought by [[Pentos]] in 1990, and Pentos was later acquired by [[Waterstones]] who rebranded all but the flagship store.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |first1=Christopher |last1=Hibbert |first2=Ben |last2=Weinreb |first3=Julia |last3=Keay |first4=John |last4=Keay |title=Hatchards |encyclopedia=The London Encyclopaedia |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sAA9olZqPSMC&pg=PA388|edition=3rd Revised |date=23 March 2010 |publisher=Macmillan |isbn=978-1-4050-4925-2 |page=388}}</ref> Waterstones also owns [[Hodges Figgis]] (founded in 1768), which is the oldest bookshop in [[Ireland]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|last=Falvey|first=Deirdre|title=Hodges Figgis: A 250-year-old story of selling books|url=https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/hodges-figgis-a-250-year-old-story-of-selling-books-1.3464764|access-date=2021-07-02|newspaper=The Irish Times|language=en|archive-date=15 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210615203421/https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/hodges-figgis-a-250-year-old-story-of-selling-books-1.3464764|url-status=live}}</ref>