gratefullysarah

Mercato Mayfair is set in the Grade I-listed St Mark’s Church, where stained glass and grand architecture create a striking welcome. Since 2019, it’s been a vibrant food and cultural hub, offering international cuisine made with fresh, sustainable ingredients across three unique floors. As well as the main floor, guests can enjoy a rooftop terrace, additional bars and restaurants in the crypt and a first-floor gallery with even more restaurants and seating areas.

Mercato Mayfair, London. Located inside the former St Mark’s Church, a Grade I listed Greek revival church built between 1825 and 1828. It was deconsecrated in 1974, sat derelict for over 20 years, and was restored to become a sustainable food market in 2019. A beautiful building! #sundayfunday

Gloucester Cathedral

Another lovely spring morning. This time in Gloucester #Gloucestercathedral #spring #bluesky #eastcoastkin

😁😁 An average of £2.3 million

5. And finally, So I guess my ideal cover is one that does both: it sparks my curiosity about the story and feels like something beautiful or intriguing in its own right. The best ones don’t just sell the book, they add to the experience of it and my bookshelf 😀

4. I’m especially drawn to covers that have thoughtful design details, subtle symbolism, interesting textures, or illustrations that reward you for looking a little longer.

3. At the same time, I genuinely love book covers as small pieces of art. Even separate from the story, a great cover can stand on its own … the composition, the colors, the typography, the mood. Some of them feel like tiny gallery pieces you just happen to hold in your hands.

2. I love when a cover hints at a story without spelling it out — when it feels like a doorway you’re being invited to step through.

I’m on the train so I can answer this properly:
1. I think my favorite kind of book covers are the ones that make me imagine before I even read the first sentence. The kind where you pause for a second and think, What’s going on here? Who is that? Why does this feel mysterious/haunting/beautiful?

I’m a sucker for book covers… anyone else? #books #bookshop #bookstore

Morning bookshop stop 📚📚📚📚#books #bookshop #booksofbluesky

Godfrey Street, Chelsea, London SW3 looking fabulous in the morning sunshine! #london #spring #sunshine

The colourful houses on Godfrey Street, Chelsea, London SW3. Early morning sunshine is illuminating the top half of each home

Spring morning light in Chelsea, London ☀️
I love these colourful houses on Godfrey Street 😍
#london #chelsea #sunshine

A gorgeous start to March, in the park. 💜 #flowers #nature #spring

❤️❤️❤️❤️

The Orchid Festival at Kew Gardens. #flowers #orchids

The 2026 festival takes inspiration from China’s remarkable biodiversity, heritage and design traditions, filling our Princess of Wales glasshouse with a dazzling array of orchids and large-scale floral installations.

The Poetry Apothecary, Oxford Street. It’s a permanent, unique literary cafe and shop offering "prescriptions" for emotional ailments, featuring books, poetry pills, and a small cafe 😊☕️📚 #books #reading #bookshop #bookstore #booksofbluesky

About Marchpane bookshop: Located in the centre of Cecil Court, the quiet pedestrian lane lined with antiquarian bookshops (tucked away in London's bustling West End), Marchpane opened in August 1989 and is the premier specialist in collectable children's and illustrated books in London. We have books from the eighteenth century to the present day; and one of the largest selections of books by and about Lewis Carroll with many hundreds of different illustrated and translated versions of Alice in Wonderland, and Through the Looking-Glass on our shelves. Marchpane is proud to be a key member of Cecil Court's community. We welcome visitors in person and we keep regular shop hours so no appointment necessary. On our shelves you will find early publications from Newbery's moral tales to signed first editions of Harry Potter. We stock all the best British collectable children’s books and nearly always have first or early editions of great classics such as: Winnie-the-Pooh, Peter Pan, The Wind in the Willows, The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, The Wizard of Oz, Pinocchio, Nursery Rhymes, in addition to beautifully illustrated editions of Andersen, Grimm and Perrault etc. We also stock some of the rarest Home Front and political children’s books of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Saturday sauntering. Marchpane bookshop (children’s books) , 16 Cecil Ct, Charing Cross Rd, London. And my favourite bear, Paddington ❤️

15°, warm sunshine and a gentle breeze today. Spring bulbs, the first black hawthorn, pussywillow and an abundance of plum blossom. Today is magnificent!

Florence and the machine. Last night.

Florence and the Machine last night 🔮🤍

Florence! Last night.

Florence and the Machine last night 🔮

😂😂

Fab, aren’t they!

Just neatening up my book stack like a Canadian 🥌👆😎

Bookshop love 🥰
#books #london #bookshop

The reading nook from the previous post 😃 #books #reading #bookshop

Reading nooks on a grey London day 📚🥰 #books #bookshop #reading

February reading so far. This ‘finished’ stack is very eclectic. That’s my challenge this year … to read across many genres and also books I’ve been lent that others raved about.
This months faves are ‘The Frozen River’, ‘Small things like these’, All the colours of the Dark’. #books #reading

Some ‘up-above-the-clouds’ peace if you need it ✈️
#travel #fly