Books

Just a wonderful place to visit, let alone to go and buy a book from. Free tea and Coffee and an extensive children's section. A must visit in Ely!

My husband and I return to Ely at least once a year because we were married in Cambridge. Mr(s) Topping’s “top-notch” “book-shop” (yes - they do serve coffee as well) always forms something of a pillar around which the rest of our trip revolves around. This year, for the first time in nearly two decades of regular visits, we ventured up to the “third floor”. Having never before needed to look in “fashion”/“art”/“miscellaneous” section, this year we were tasked by my brother with finding his daughter (my niece) a book on perfumes. Needless to say my husband and I hadn’t the foggiest idea about the stuff (my husband doesn’t wear any perfumes [apart from deodorant(s)] and I still use a Chanel ‘number’ gifted to me as a wedding present by my late mother, who is - unfortunately - no longer with us, due to her relatively recent death). Thankfully, a Knight-in-Shining-Armour (or should I say, lovely chequered shirt) employed by the shop was on hand to offer invaluable, but ultimately ignored, advice based on his near-encyclopaedic knowledge of the printed word, and particularly that relating to perfumes. We didn’t buy the book, but only due to our (specially, my husband’s) waning health and pressing need to exit the shop. *** All in all, yet another terrific experience. As we left the shop, I turned to my husband and said “if only there were more shops like this on our high streets, and fewer ‘Costa Coffees’ our country would be in a far better state than the mess in which we currently find it in.” He said, “I could not agree more, you should put that in the review.” So here we are, and there we were.

Nice little store. You can get the basic newspaper and magazines there. If you need stationary it is a good place to go. They are also have a very good selection of books for all ages, some of them are on special offer so you could get a good bargain there at times. They also have a nice range of sweets and chocolates again at a reasonable price.

Usual wh smiths, good range of products

Although this is a nice gift shop, I prefere the one in the cathedral itself

Lovely little gift shop