19-21 Cecil Court, London WC2N 4EZ, UK
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History of Watkins Books
by Dr. Shai Feraro
Watkins Books came into being during the heyday of the late 19 th Century British esoteric revival. In March 1893, John Maurice Watkins (1862-1947), a Theosophist and a close friend of Madame Blavatsky, began editing Book-Notes, a publication on 'Theosophical, Occult, Oriental and Miscellaneous' works connected with theTheosophical Publishing Society. By April 1897, Book-Notes gave way to Watkins' first catalogue, which directed potential customers to a business address at 26 Charing Cross Road – then the bustling centre of the British book trade. The shop relocated briefly to a nearby premises at 53 St. Martin's Lane around 1900, before moving again the following year, this time to 21 Cecil Court, where it has been ever since.
Publishing developed in tandem with the main bookselling business, beginning with the publication of Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers' 1898 translation of The Book of the sacred Magic of Abra-Melin the Mage under the Watkins imprint, and followed by more than 400 original and new editions of esoteric books, pamphlets and magazines during the next century.
In 1919, Geoffrey Watkins (1896-1981) joined the family business to help his aging – and by that point, almost blind – father. The shop continued to serve the esoteric community throughout the Interwar period, attracting characters such as Christmas Humphries of the Buddhist Society, the young Alan Watts, or Spiritualist Ursula Roberts. It also arranged for the printing of the first edition of Carl Jung's Seven Sermons to the Dead, privately published in 1925 under a pseudonym. Jung would repeatedly order books from the shop during the 1930s-1950s.
Watkins' bookshop became a focal point for London's esoteric milieu during the early decades of the 20th Century, and among its patrons were occult luminaries such as W.B. Yeats, A.E. Waite, G.R.S. Mead and Aleister Crowley, to name but a few.
WWII was a trying period for the shop. Geoffrey Watkins returned to work for British intelligence (as he did during the first war), and his father, John, by then completely blind, did his best to keep the business open amidst staff shortage and the constant threat of the Blitz (one of the bombs shattered the windows of the family home on Stanford Road). John M. Watkins continued to work at the shop daily until two days prior to his death on August 19th , 1947, at the age of 85.
Geoffrey Watkins, who returned to the family firm in 1946, spent the post-war years rebuilding the business with the aid of his wife, Flora Kate. In 1964, they were joined
by esoteric publishers Vincent Stuart and Richard Robinson, who revitalised the shop and its publishing arm. This was just in time for the explosion of interest in all things occult that Britain had undergone by the end of the decade as part of the counterculture, and the shop expanded into the adjacent 19 Cecil Court as well.
Cecil Court, 1930s.
Geoffrey Watkins retired from the day-to-day running of the shop in 1971, but continued to hold court at the premises and guide new generations of spiritual seekers to the right book for them until his death on August 15th, 1981. In 1984, the shop was sold to American esoteric publisher and bookseller, Donald Weiser, Henry Suzuki – who managed Weiser's New York bookshop – and fellow Cecil Court booksellers Robert and Val Chris, who specialised in alternative and complimentary medicine. Together, they breathed new life into the bookshop, which sustained it between the era of Thatcherism and the rise of the Internet, by computerising the store and opening the basement floor to customers, thereby doubling the shop's retail space. 1999 saw another changeover in management as the shop was sold to the Caxton Publishing group, leading to the establishment of the Watkins Esoteric Centre in 13-15 Cecil Court.
Expansion was later followed by a period of contraction; the Watkins Esoteric Centre integrated into Watkins Books in 2007 as the shop struggled to cope with soaring rents and the rise of corporate internet bookselling. In 2010, Watkins Books was saved from administration by entrepreneur Etan Ilfeld, who retained its original staff and is passionate about ensuring Watkins Books; sustainability in the 21st century. In 2014 Ilfeld purchased Watkins Publishing as well, and he also serves as editor-in-chief of the Watkins Mind Body Spirit Magazine.​
John Watkins