In front of me stands a dusty, coal-slicked door on Wardour Street, Soho. To my right, a choice of three buzzers: Hyphen Films, Dimello Coffee and, in the middle, the single word: IDEA. I choose the latter, and wind-up crusty office stairs which do not appear to have been touched since Sir Elton John called the building his office in the Seventies. It’s refreshingly grotty; a lesser seen sight in central London today. Certainly in Soho, anyway, which square foot by sweet square foot is having the gritty goodness corporate power-hosed away. That is what Angela Hill and David Owen, owners of IDEA, the rare bookshop and independent publisher, would tell you anyway.
The couple, who are both in their fifties, entered the book trade as a side hustle in the early Noughties, setting up shop at cult fashion store Dover Street Market in 2006, before renting in this building in 2009. Their obscure taste has cultivated an A-list Rolodex of clients that includes fashion designers, performers, tech bros and the global one per cent at large (they don’t let a student leave without something affordable, either). They have also gained internet notoriety by sharing unseen pictures from their finds: IDEA is dubbed “Instagram’s bookshop”, with more than half a million followers. But the magic happens in person.
