BARTER STREET, London…..And in the mid-1970s I used to visit Barter Street in my lunch hours when I worked at Spinks – and Andrew Block, a GREAT bookseller, who never issued lists………..had been there for many, many years – he must have been at least 80 years old then - he was an old-school London bookseller - and he had fantastic (really fantastic) books - he had a huge card index system and if you went in and asked for “coin books” - as I did – he checked his enormous “card system”- found a few books that he probably had in stock for years and years, and scuttled off to the basement, and emerged 30 minutes later with a handful of super things, that invariably I bought and them…. I would rush back to the Spink office in St James’s, and catalogue them for the next issue of the Numismatic Circular…….they were remarkable times (really, they were). In the 1970s we (Spink) often used to sell 90% of what we listed for Sale in the 'Circular'- those were the days.

This web page has wonderful photos of some of the old London bookshops- as they were in 1971- about the time I was visiting Andrew Block - he is pictured in one of the photos - outside his old shop- now demolished and replaced by a faceless piece of office space…….. His business was established before the First WW and around 1911….so I reckon he must have been in his 80s when I knew him……….!