The Best camera shops in London

With our shopping habits so geared towards the internet nowadays it’s easy to forget about the traditional camera shop, not Jessops or Dixons, but the real thing. And they’re still there, tucked away in central London among the back roads and Courtyards of Bloomsbury near the British Museum.

The Camera cafe (and white van!) Bloomsbury

Hunting for a top-quality wrist strap for the Panasonic GF-1 today, my first stop was the Camera Cafe In Museum Street. Integrated with Aperture Cameras it’s a cosy place offering excellent coffee and snacks with loads of old photo magazines to read while you refuel.  A little further west in Bury Place is York Cameras with a vast stock of Canon cameras and lenses, used equipment, and all the bits and pieces you’ll ever need.

The Classic Camera  shop is  just around the back of Bury Place in Pied Bull Yard and it’s stacked full of new and used Leica gear, Billingham bags and all sorts of other lovely stuff. It was here that I found the perfect strap with, unsurprisingly an appropriate price tag.  While wandering around I also spotted a camera repair shop, a collection point for the online seller Microglobe and an underwater camera specialist.

Bloomsbury is well worth a wander around whatever your interest, still full of independent shops of all kinds and remaining, for the time being at least, relatively unstarbuxed.

A quick update. In need of a flash meter for the new studio lighting kit for our impending  product and studio portrait sessions I found the best UK price to be Microglobe who have a very convenient pickup store right in the heart of Bloomsbury in Galen Place.  They were happy to hold the item for me for a few days and I collected paying the discounted internet price.  Opening the box and reading the instructions over a coffee at the Camera Cafe I was spotted by another togger who, being familiar with said flashmeter gave me the full rundown of the menus and buttons. Most satisfactory!!