Watkins Book Shop

Long established British bookshop specializing in occultism, mysticism, comparative religion, parapsychology, esoteric psychology, and related topics, founded by John M. Watkins in 1894. Watkins was a friend of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky and other leading occult figures of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The shop in Cecil Court, Charing Cross Road, London, was a meeting place for such famous and varied individuals as A. E. Waite, William Butler Yeats and Aleister Crowley. Watkins also published texts in the fields of occultism and mysticism. After his death, the business was carried on by his son Geoffrey Watkins (1896-1981).

All through the prewar occult boom of the 1920s and 1930s and the more recent occult explosion of the 1960s, the Watkins Book Shop has been a central focus of occultism, with a strong emphasis on mysticism and Eastern religion. After the death of Watkins, the company went through various changes of title, including Stuart & Watkins (associated with Stuart & Robinson), but retained its essential character, as familiar to British students of occultism and mysticism as the Weiser Bookshop in New York.

In April 1984, the company became firmly linked with the Weiser Bookshop through the formation of Watkins Books Ltd., with directors Donald Weiser and Henry Suzuki of Samuel Weiser, Inc., and Valerie Chris of Robert Chris Bookseller (also in Cecil Court). Formerly a general literary book shop, Robert Chris is now a leading supplier of books on health and alternative medicine. Both Weiser and Watkins remain important book shops but with the growth of the field, the proliferation of alternative bookshops, and the passing of shops like Watkins into the hands of other owners, they have lost their unique place in the occult/alternative religious community.