Word on the Water
A beloved floating bookshop on a 1920s Dutch barge moored by the canal at King's Cross, free to browse with live jazz on its roof.
FREE
The lowdown
Moored on the canal beside Granary Square is Word on the Water, a wonderfully atmospheric bookshop housed in a hundred-year-old Dutch barge. Wood-panelled and stuffed with secondhand and new books, with a wood-burning stove going in winter, it is free to step aboard and browse, and one of the most photographed spots in King's Cross.
On the roof deck the owners host live jazz and poetry, so on a good day you can rummage for a paperback to the sound of a brass band by the water. It is free to enjoy, a romantic and slightly ramshackle delight that has become a genuine London institution.
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