English Books & British Foods

Basically, a British corner shop removed from any small town in the UK and transplanted into Hamburg. Pretty bloody essential, as one could go mad here having to drink German 'tea'. You can also pick up most of the ingredients for a full English breakfast, real crisps, and....wait for it... bitter! Yes indeed, for a paltry EUR3.60 you can savour a bottle of Theakston's Old Peculiar, a Tim Taylor's Landlord, or a Moorhouses' Old Speckled Hen. Makes living in Germany seem not half as bad really...

There's nothing like it anywhere in Hamburg: Robert Berridge's used bookshop selling only English books. Mr. Berridge himself reminds me of a hobbit, and if hobbits were capable of living in complete chaos, they'd feel right at home in this shop.


Overfilled, dusty and musty, the cheap (and mostly dangerously leaning) shelves are packed in no particular order with used books in English, in wildly varying states of decomposition. However, despite the haphazard state of his shelves, Mr. Berridge has surprised me time and time again by laying his hand on the book I'm looking for within seconds. If the shop were slightly cleaner and more organised, it'd get a five, but it's simply the only place to go for a large selection in Hamburg, so a three will have to do.


As for the attached "English Foods" shop, I can't really judge. I've never been impressed enough with English cuisine to bother going in it, but I guess it'd be a comfort for poms over from the island.

First, the facts:
I used to live right around the corner from this place; it couldn't have been more than a five-minute walk from door to door. And I'm an avid reader; although I read in German, too, I definitely go through a pile of English books each year. These two facts, taken together, would seem to indicate that I would have become a regular of English Books. This, sadly, was not the case.
Maybe I don't understand British humour or shop customs, but to put it simply, I never hit it off with the owner, and I never felt welcome or comfortable in the shop. Once or twice he made jokes at my expense, and poor ones at that (I was looking for Dostoyevsky's Idiot; you can imagine the rest).
It's too bad, because I would have loved to like the place.

I love this place. You will, too, if you enjoy going through piles of unorganized books and randomly placed British imported food (canned mostly). It is a mess of a store, but very comfortable for this native English speaker. Some books are overpriced, considering they are used, but there are enough good deals to balance it out. Make sure to carve out plenty of time for browsing.

Robert has a nice variety of typically British food. A lot of the things that I miss not being in the UK.

I've discovered this shop here and went there when I've been to Hamburg. I didn't found any books that I was looking for, but the selection of British food there is great. I've bought Marmite and Green and Black's chocolate which I've lost later.